


A Ninja's Dance

by GiasSoul (Syrenthia)



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Action & Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-19 20:10:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 27,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2401382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrenthia/pseuds/GiasSoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things were going pretty well for the TMNT. With Leo back they were slowly mending their family ties. Nothing had exploded in a while, there hadn't been any inter dimensional or universal threats to beat down and the Shredder was well and truly gone. Yep, everything was going well...right up until they found a nearly dead girl in the sewers. (2003 series 2007 movie)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

If it was possible to kill someone via phone, there would be a fair few phone company operators currently withering in the throes of death. No doubt the news reports of their mysterious demise would come as sweet revenge to the young woman currently doing battle down her land line.

"What? No! I don't want to upgrade my plan, this isn't a billing question either; I just want to know why I don't have reception anywhere! Is it a network coverage issue?" There was a pause as the underpaid lackey on the other end of the line attempted to diffuse the situation as best he could.

It didn't work.

"Of course it has a sim card! I'm working on one of your plans! Is that the problem? Has it not been activated properly? What? No…NO! Don't put me on…hold" The last word came out more like a frustrated sigh than anything else. How many sections did this company even have? She was sure she had spoken to every single one of them, probably several times. She knew what they were going to say when they eventually came back on the line as well, she'd been through it that many times.

" _Just to clarify your information with you. Your name is Miss Judith Carter yes?_ " The young woman would then agree that yes, her name was Judith Carter, as it had been for the past 22 years; and probably ask if maybe the past 15ish people she had spoken to had forgotten to pass that information on.

" _Ok, and your date of birth?_ " It was at about this time in the conversation that Judith would begin to formulate plots filled with fire and the burned remains of the wonderful company she was speaking with. But she kept those to herself as she answered the question with a calm and friendly voice.

" _You're full address and phone number please?_ " She'd give the information slowly, spelling out street names and repeating her phone number twice. If she'd been having troubles remembering her new mobile number before, this experience had well and truly cemented it in her mind.

"Oh forget it" Judith finally muttered to the offensive elevator music blaring in her ear, clicking the hand held off and slamming it to the table.

There was a wash of calm as Judith settled into the silence of the room. No more elevator music, no more incompetent people, and no more repetitive questions. Yet, there was something in the back of her mind trying to pry its way into her breathing space.

As if on cue, the black mobile on the table beeped impatiently to remind her it didn't have service and couldn't verify her information. Ah yes. The phone, the expensive Iphone with all the extra's and none of the necessaries. Like reception. Or a manual for those with the technical competence obviously below the required level to operate the damn thing.

Though honestly, Judith didn't think she really needed a manual. She'd figured out how everything else on the phone worked, and she was pretty sure it wasn't a problem on her end. Usually she didn't have any real problems with technology in general. This particular phone however, seemed to revolve on a whole other plain. If she hadn't charged the battery and turned the thing on herself she would have declared it an alien species and have been done with it.

Taking a very deep breath, Judith raised herself from her chair and laboriously stretched out the kinks in her back and neck. She wasn't exactly sure how long she had been sitting at the desk with the home phone attached to her ear, but she knew it was probably enough for her to hate her phone bill and possibly her chiropractor bill too. Thinking about money made Judith cringe. As if the move here hadn't been enough, now she had to deal with the exchange rate.

Judith had never thought she would end up living in the US. Visiting on holidays, sure, but living? She'd entered the American green card lottery on a whim, thinking there was little to no chance that she would actually win it. She couldn't even win $2 on a scratchy, let alone a ticket into another country. Thus, some time later when the news had arrived on her doorstep offering her a chance at American citizenship she'd been completely floored as to what to do. Should she stay home and continue umming and ahhing over what she wanted to do with the rest of her life? Or should she take a leap of faith and do something so far out of her comfort zone it was making her sick just thinking about it? The decision had ultimately been made based on two reasons.

The first was that New York was a place Judith had grown up reading about and seeing in movies. She had been there on holidays once before when she was much younger so she felt she might be able to adapt if she was somewhat familiar with her surroundings. Though in reality she doubted there would be any similarities to what little she could recall.

But hell, If she was going somewhere to be completely unsure of herself, it would be there.

The second was a little bit more trivial. She'd spent too long moping around. She needed a change, a shock factor to help snap her back to life again.

When she had finally made the decision it had been a bit of a whirlwind to finalize all the paperwork. Then there had been a 6 month waiting period before the rush started again. She bought the plane ticket, found a place to live, packed, got everything sorted so she could get herself a job just as quickly as possible when she got there and say goodbye to everyone.

At the time it had been the start of a new adventure. She had been scared, but the excitement seemed to outway it at times.

Now, well...

Now it seemed she had been a little too hasty in her decision. She had known that the city would be big, she just hadn't realized how big, and how tall. Back home tall buildings all congregated in the city central, surrounded by suburban districts or warehouses. Here it was as if every building needed to be at least three stories tall. She felt small and lost when she went out. Make no mistake, she was no country bumpkin, she'd had her fair share of big cities in her short lifetime...but New York was just something else.

She couldn't remember the buildings being this large in her holiday memories. Strange, since she was sure she must have been quite a bit smaller back then.

The feeling of smallness was only enhanced by the fact that she didn't know anyone here. She had no relatives to visit, no friends to hang out with on weekends. She missed her family desperately and after two weeks in the city of dreams she was longing for some sort of work, just to take her mind off how tiny she felt.

Oh, and it was _cold_. She didn't have nearly enough winter clothing to deal with a New York winter.

Winter in Australia tended to be a little milder. Actually, a _lot_ milder.

Judith had decided she didn't like cold very much. The only thing she was looking forward too that came from this freezing temperature was the snow, and as yet there hadn't been any.

The only real experience she had had with snow was the ski slopes in the Snowy Mountains outside Canberra. The snow there was mainly man made, and it was packed and icy and rather painful to fall on. She was excited to see real, fluffy white snow that you could make snow angels in and build snowmen.

Not that she had anyone to build a snowman with.

Judith sighed and rubbed her temples slowly. Her head was foggy, and the dull throbbing behind her eyes told her she was about to come into a rather painful headache. Maybe fresh air would help, though Judith wasn't sure how fresh the air actually was in New York. But a walk was a better idea than sitting by herself all-night and waiting for sleep to knock on her door.

This being decided, Judith stepped away from the desk and grabbed her coat, pulling it on and starting the laborious search for her small collection of winter gear. Boots, overly woolly socks, a pair of cashmere lined leather gloves her mother got her for her going away present, a beanie that could have possibly belonged to her ex-boyfriend and finally, the biggest, warmest scarf she could find.

Overall, the mismatched compilation of colours, styles and fabric made Judith feel frumpy and fashion impaired, but it was all she had so she figured it would do. It wasn't like she was aiming to impress anyone anyway. She grabbed her book from her bedside table and toddled back to the main room of the apartment, making it all the way to her front door before she remembered the phone on her desk. It didn't have service…but then maybe one more look would help and she never left home without a phone on her. It was her mother's number one rule.

She sighed, and went back to her desk, snatching the mobile from the table top and shoving it deep in her pocket with her keys. Fresh air was going to have to work bloody wonders.

Her headache had hit.

* * *

Michelangelo was bored.

Dangerously bored.

After several weeks of confinement to the lair, Mikey had officially exhausted all his entertainment options.

Something his currently absent brothers didn't seem to have a problem with. Leo, taking the danger of Karai's mindless revenge quip seriously, had been training full throttle, and happily soaking up his sensei's praise for all his 'hard work'. Pfft, Mikey didn't need praise to sustain himself.

Raph had simply disappeared off topside with Casey, what they were doing was beyond Mikey, and he wasn't sure he actually wanted to know. His current motto was, if you don't know about it, you can't get in trouble for it. It had been working out pretty well for him so far.

Donnie, well, Donnie was curiously quiet. After Leo had come back from his training, and the whole Winters saga was over, Donnie began to lock himself away in his lab more and more. Mikey figured that Donnie's absence just _felt_ weird because while Leo had been away, Don had been marked the 'temporary leader' (much to Raphs displeasure). That basically meant that Don was almost always around in case someone needed him. Now Leo had unceremoniously dropped back into their lives, and re-claimed his position as leader, Don had been pushed out of the limelight. Mikey frowned to himself and began playing with his bandanna tails as the TV blared on about the cities deteriorating condition.

To be honest, Mikey still didn't really know how to feel about Leo's re-entry into the lair. I mean sure, he was happy his brother was home; but life for the remaining turtles had changed, and they couldn't just all be expected to go back to how it was right?

He hadn't said anything about how he felt (he left that up to Raph), but he figured Leo picked up on it a bit, because he was trying a little too hard to spend time with his youngest bro.

Mikey sighed and leaned his head back against the couch, he was so _bored_. If something interesting didn't happen soon he was going to either wilt away or do something stupid. Neither of these options were going to impress his brothers much.

"Mikey? You awake?"

Mikey jumped and swiveled to face the voice, which apparently belonged to Leonardo. Leo was sweating slightly, and had obviously been training. This was bad news for Mikey.

"Whats up bro?" Mikey asked cautiously, yawning and stretching in what he hoped would look like a very _'I don't want to train thanks'_ kind of way. Leo smiled slightly and tapped his fingers on the arm of the couch.

"Nothing much really, don't suppose you want to spar?"

That was possibly the last thing Mikey wanted to do. Sparring was _worse_ than training, sparring meant hurties and painies for Mikey, especially when sparring involved Leo. Forcing a smile, Mikey's brain kicked itself into gear and he shook his head.

"Sorry Leo dude, just caught me on my way out, going for a skate" Now, Mikey knew Leo was going to argue, since he was sitting on the couch with no skateboard in sight. And he also knew he wouldn't be able to leave if he tried to argue back. So the best course of action here was to get the hell out and pretend he didn't hear Leo calling after him.

Which is what he did. Mikey grinned real wide at his brother, vaulted the couch, and was out the door with his skateboard before Leo could even formulate words into a reasonable argument.

"Damn it" Leo muttered, slamming an open palm onto the couch arm as the brick wall slid shut after his brother. He sighed, heavily, and flopped down on the now empty seat. "I need a drink."

* * *

Judith hummed as she made her way down her apartment stairs and out into the street. Despite her current money situation, she hadn't done too badly with her apartment. The rent was decent, and the area was pretty good. Pretty good meaning she could go out near sun set and walk around without constant fear of getting mugged. Then again, her fear of getting mugged was probably just movie induced paranoia. It was quiet, there were barley any people around and most of the traffic had stopped in the area. Judith wasn't sure if this was normal for New York, but it was nice.

There was a small park near-by. Nothing too big, just a small cluster of trees and a couple park benches staring at a water fountain. Again, it was just nice. She plopped down on a park bench and inhaled deeply, feeling the crisp cold air grate at her throat. It didn't really bother her too much, her headache was clearing up, retreating back to a dull ache behind her eyes. There was only one other person in the park, an older man with nothing remarkable about him except his bright green sweater and blue duffle bag. He didn't seem to notice her, so she flipped her book open to her marker and scanned the page, finding her last spot and continuing on.

After a while of reading the same sentence several times, Judith gave up on the book and opted to merely sit and play with her phone. It wasn't that great of a book, just something she'd picked up at the airport and hadn't gotten around to reading. Since she hadn't unpacked her other books yet, this was really her only reading material.

It was a good phone really. She'd never had an Iphone before, it had been a splurge on her part and there were quite a few fun little things to do with it. Eventually, Judith ran out of technological capabilities and slumped into the bench. She didn't feel like going home, but she didn't really want to stay out here either. She had what her father would call a 'chameleon hump' or something like that. Basically it just meant that she didn't know what to do with herself.

So she did what any self-respecting young lady would do in a public park with no one around.

She filmed a message on her phone that she would eventually send her friends.

"Hello lovely people." She smiled into the little camera lens and gave a one handed wave "So I thought I might show you the little park near my apartment. If you're seeing it now its because I figured out what was wrong with my phone here and I got reception." She stuck her tongue out a little at this and swiveled the phone to face the park. "Well, this is it, nothing too speci…" The sound of tires rolling through the quiet street stopped Judith mid sentence and she turned to watch as a black van slowed and mounted the pavement nearby.

Her bench was pretty much hidden from street view by the small line of bushes and tree's, so Judith poked her head (and phone) out to watch what was going on.

Three men jumped out of the van, all dressed in black and all sporting an identical purple dragon shaped tattoo on their arms. The biggest one of the group (who was mountain type big) had another tattoo on his other shoulder as well, it looked almost like a cross between a chicken and a dinosaur foot. Judith felt a chill crawl up her spine as she watched them. Whoever they were, they didn't look friendly, and she didn't want to ask them if they were, stranger danger and all that.

The other man in the park however, the one Judith had noted before, didn't seemed concerned about being seen because he hurried over to them and started yammering in fast, panicked tones. Judith held her breath, wanting to walk away but not wanting to move in case they saw her.

She tried to reason with herself. They probably weren't bad guys, probably not bad at all. Maybe they were just catching up with a friend or something. Maybe the dragon tat was just a high school thing and they had kept in contact. Or maybe they were a gang of tough killing slave traders…you know…either way…

Judith continued to watch as the biggest one of the group pulled out a black duffle bag from the van and dumped it unceremoniously onto the ground. He stooped and unzipped it before kicking it towards the man in green, who glanced inside and nodded before zipping it back up. He pulled it up over his shoulder and handed the big guy his blue bag.

The big one (who was quite obviously the leader) unzipped the blue duffle and frowned, reaching in and drawing out a single small square package. He shook his head and glared down at the now shaking man in green. Some hushed but obviously angry conversation ensued, before the leader of the dragon tattoos raised a fist and landed a solid punch to the cowering mans jaw, knocking him to the ground.

Judith gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth, hoping she hadn't been heard. Then it was suddenly all over very quickly. The leader pulled out a gun from his belt, and put two silenced rounds through the guys head.

Just like that…

Judith had never seen anyone die before, but she suddenly knew why people were scarred by it. The man was lying still on the pavement, his jaw obviously broken, and when the bullets had hit, his blood had sprayed up and splattered all over the white cement. She felt tears begin to well in her eyes and bit down on her hand so she couldn't cry. She just needed to stay quiet, just needed them to leave so she could…do something. Maybe go to the police. She wasn't sure. She was just very, very scared. Why hadn't anyone else seen this? Why was it just her in the park? This was New York! people were always around!

The leader leant over and pulled the black bag away from the dead body, throwing it in the back of the van with the blue duffle and whispering quiet instructions to the other two men with him. Judith took a quiet breath and shifted slightly in her seat, slipping her phone into her pocket and preparing to bolt as soon as they had left.

This knocked her book to the ground with a loud, resounding thump.

All action at the van stopped, and three very angry sets of eyes began scanning the park in long, hard sweeps. Judith stayed perfectly still, praying they wouldn't care. Desperately hoping against all hopes they wouldn't come looking for the cause of the sound.

Her prayers weren't answered. The leader of the three growled more instructions to the two others and began walking through the park, eyes darting around at every hint of movement.

Judith watched, paralyzed with fear as he edged closer and closer to her position. Then, just before his big head peeked around the bush line hiding her from the street, Judith ran.

Bolted, her adrenaline packed body flying from the bench and launching her into the open park and towards the street. She heard the man behind her yell for his companions before a gun went off behind her. The bullets connected with her side, cutting through the flesh and sending flashes of dangerously hot pain through her body. But she didn't stop. She was thankful it was only one bullet and he hadn't emptied his clip. Or maybe he had and she just hadn't heard it, maybe he missed. It didn't matter

She kept running, her body taking total control as the heavy thumping of feet clattered after her, she barley felt the wound on her side, through she knew it was probably causing more pain that she had ever experienced.

In the back of her terrified mind she heard someone running behind her make a jutted phone call, but she didn't care. When she had started running, the van and the men had blocked her usual route home, and Judith found herself quickly getting lost in the mass of back streets fanning out from the park. She didn't stop running. It would have been stupid to go home anyway, they may not have got her then, but they would have know where she lived.

Oh _god_. Were they going to kill her like they had that man? She just needed to find one person. One person out of the millions living in New York. Just one person.

But there was no-one around. Every street she turned down was as deserted as the last, and they were slowly becoming dingier, darker and more degraded. Finally, when her legs were burning and her head was light and dizzy, Judith spotted a young woman leaning on the corner of one of the streets. Joy erupted in her gut and Judith cried out, drawing the woman's attention instantly. She was too breathless to cry help, and she could faintly feel blood trickling down her side, soaking the hip of her pants.

The woman stood strait for a moment, then, motioned to someone further around the corner. Oh thank god, there were more with her, if there were more, maybe the men behind her might not try anything and she could get away.

It wasn't until Judith got within a couple of feet of the woman that she noticed the purple dragon tattoo creeping up her neck from her shirt. Then it was too late.

Judith tried to dodge away from her, but the woman caught her wrist and swung her around, slamming her into the alleyway wall. Judith's vision blackened for a second as her head collided with the brick wall and she nearly gagged at the shattering pain that spiralled through her temple. Her arm swung out in some form of defence, and surprisingly connected rather hard with the woman's jaw. The woman backed up for a second, shocked that Judith had retaliated at all, then lunged forward again.

That single second gave Judith enough time to get her bearings and make her legs work again. She pushed off from the wall and hurtled down the next alleyway, blood from her forehead dripping into her eyes and blurring her vision.

Judith didn't know much at this point, but she knew that there was now more than three people after her, and she couldn't keep running. Her legs were nearly giving way on ever second step, her vision was fading, and the pain from her side was starting to make itself known. She needed out. Now. Or she was going to die.

Oh God. _Die._

She stumbled to a stop around another corner and gasped out a sob. Pain and exhaustion hitting her.

_Help. Help me._

The sun was setting, and the last rays were dragging sulkily out of the alleyway where she was hiding. They glimmered, frosting over a snow-covered piece of metal in the centre of the alleyway. There, was a sewer entrance. A manhole. An escape.

Judith lunged forward and yanked hard on the metal covering, forcing it free with strength she didn't know she had. She barreled down without thinking and felt her foot slip on the wet metal of the ladder too late to stop herself toppling backwards. She managed to restrict her surprise to a muffled yip as she slid down a few rungs. She finally caught a grip on ladder and held on, feeling her wrist groan and pull and the sudden jolted weight being forced on it. Somehow, Judith managed reach up and pulled the metal cover back into place.

She was immediately submerged in darkness, and her hands tightened around the ladder. She could hear the muffled yells of the people as they approached the alleyway, and jammed her eyes shut.

_Please._

She bit her lip hard in an attempt to stifle a sob and lent forward so her forehead was resting on the rung above her hands.

_Please._

"Check the buildings! We weren't that far behind!" A chorus of agreement followed the deep cry from above her. Judith waited, unable to move a muscle as a foot landed heavily on the metal casing of the manhole. For a moment there was no movement above her and she whimpered, shivering. If they found her, if they opened the manhole...

The foot moved, and the manhole clicked back into place with a gentle 'thud'.

"She's not here!" Her heart in her throat, Judith forced herself to look up. After a moment her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, helped by the light coming through the rim of the manhole. The foot replaced itself on the manhole and Judith's eyes snapped down to the wall in front of her.

_Breathe in._

_Breathe out._

She stayed stiff, her hands gripping the metal ladder so hard her knuckles were slowly loosing colour. She focused her eyes solely on the dirty bricks lining the wall only inches from her nose and tried to count the cracks in them. Above her, the thunder of what seemed like a million pairs of feet rocketed over, some clanging on the metal concealing her hiding place.

It was the feeling of heated dread that held her firmly in her position long after the feet had stopped, and it took a lot of convincing to make her uncurl her fingers from the ladder and inch her way down.

She couldn't go up again, not tonight. It was too dangerous. She was too scared.

Judith didn't know anything about the sewers of New York, and she certainly didn't realise that some of the manholes only had half ladders that left about a metre before the cement path below. She found this out when she lent her weight on the next rung of the ladder only to find it wasn't there. Her wrist gave out as her full weight was put on it and Judith felt herself fall, landing heavily and slamming the back of her head into the cement painfully hard.

Then, nothing. The ring of light above her faded, and her body went limp, and everything disappeared.

* * *

Mikey was making his skating outing as long as possible. He wanted Leo to have forgotten about training by the time he got back, but on the flip side of that he wanted to be back for dinner.

So the plan was to explore one of the relatively unused sewer tunnels and see if there was either anything worth salvaging, or, possibly a cool skate area. So far he hadn't turned up anything interesting. Sewer water, sewer water, and more sewer water. Same old bland tunnel walls and pipes.

Nothing exciting.

It was getting close to sunset, Mikey could tell by the changing light filtering through the manholes and cracks in the tunnels. He would have to head home soon if he wanted to score some one on one pizza time, and since he couldn't find any excitement...

Mikey sped up, streamlining himself as much as a teenage mutant turtle could and pushing himself along the tunnel with effortlessly powerful movements. When the wheels of his skateboard were running so hard against the brick he was sure they were getting close to melting he found himself laughing and starting up an old game he used to play as a kid, imaging himself in some big contest topside with all the best skaters racing a dangerous and adrenaline pumping track.

"Aaaannnd Mikey rounds the corner, still way ahead of his competition. I don't know Steve, you think he would have relaxed a little with so much leeway to play with." Mikey sped down the straight, calling out his commentary to the echoing tunnels.

"I don't know Bob, I think he might be heading for the record! No way Steve! No-ones beaten that record in nearly twenty years!" Mikey took a corner fast enough that his hand skimmed the ground when he leant into it. "I think he might have it too Bob, all he has to do it make this final turn at the end of the line and he's set to be crowned the newest Skateboarding King of the Universe!"

The last corner sped to meet him and Mikey grinned, leaning perfectly into it and taking it as wide so he could before skidding to a almost-but-not-quite stop with the skill and precision of a true professional.

"And he's done it! Ladies and Gentlemen! Michelangelo has officially beat the…universe…record…" Mikey's exuberance died off and he slowed, stopping to stare at the crumpled heap that had caught his attention just a couple of metres away. He flipped his board up, drawing one nunchuck and edging closer with dubious curiosity. Whatever the lump was, it hadn't been there when he had passed by earlier today.

Mikey narrowed his eyes and took a long hard look at the thing, eyeing it from head to toe. It was wrapped in lots of dark material, and had booted legs, with slim arms and…

_Holy sewer-apples!_

Mikey's realisation that the mess before him was a _person_ shoved away a lot of his concern for the danger of the situation and he hurried forward to get a better look, nunchuck still readied just in case this was a trap.

Closer inspection revealed that the crumpled heap was a woman. A woman in pretty bad shape.

The question of whether he should help her or not cropped up and with a decisive roll of his shoulders he pushed it away. Because of course the answer was yes. Mikey wasn't about to let someone die because he was concerned she would lay eyes on him. That decided he closed the gap between him and the girl, very gently turning her so she was on her back and not curled on her side.

Well, she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, the huge cut and bruise on her forehead made that obvious. But she was breathing, and she was still warm. So she was alive.

Now, Mikey wasn't a Donnie. He only had minimal medical knowledge, but of the littlle he did know he was sure that human wrists weren't meant to be swollen and purple, and no living thing should be leaking blood all over the ground. Which happened to be what the girl was currently doing.

Mikey felt panic begin to rise in his chest. This girl needed a hospital. Fast.

But what was he going to do? He couldn't just drop her off himself. What was he going to say… _'oh hi Mr. Doctor, I'm a mutant turtle and I just happened to find this half dead girl in the sewers where I live. Would you be so kind to take care of her?'_ Yeah, that would go down like a tonne of bricks.

But he needed to do something or the woman could die. He needed help…

And when Mikey needed help, he went to Donnie. Because Donnie was a damn genius and he would know what to do in this sort of situation.

Mikey pulled out his shell cell and punched Donatello's button, listening to the rings impatiently. Finally the line clicked into service as Donnie answered.

"Mikey, I swear, if this is another prank call I'm going to kill you. And don't deny it! There are only six people who can call this number and you're the only one who would know that and still try to prank me!" Donatello's voice blasted down the line and Mikey scrambled to retaliate.

"No! No, Donnie this is serious! I need your help" There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment before Donnie replied.

"What did you do?"

Mikey, despite his rather panicked state 'humph'ed into the speaker.

"I didn't do anything. I found a woman down here. She's really hurt. She's bleeding real bad. What do I do Don?"

More silence, before Dons calm voice came back on the line. "I've got you on the tracker, don't move, I'm coming now."

Mikey hung up when the line went dead and tried to think straight through some far too loud and terrifying thoughts.

"Don's coming. You're gonna be ok" He informed the still figure of the woman, creeping closer and pushing some blood matted hair from her face. "He'll fix this."

Despite the cut on her head, Mikey thought she was maybe pretty. High cheekbones like the girls in Master Splinters Soap Opera's. He frowned and touched a finger very carefully to the skin just below the cut on her forehead.

"What happened to you?" he muttered to the silent tunnels around him.

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story takes place in the 2007 movie verse with 2k3 seasons 1-3 relevant. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter comes across ok. I, unfortunately, don't have a lot of experience with medical operations or lingo, so I was running off what I have learned from my few hospital visits and the good old internets.

It took Donnie all of 15 minutes to get out of the lair and make his way to Mikey's location in the sewer slider. Those 15 minutes were spent alternating between frustration and worry. He was worried about Mikey, because as far as he knew, this 'girl' he had found was a foot, or a Purple Dragon, just waiting to have the right opportunity pop up.

Yet at the same time he was worried about the girl too, because if she wasn't a Foot or a Purple Dragon (and if she was as banged up as Mikey seemed to think), then she needed medical attention. Fast. Donnie only hoped he could.

"Don!"

Donnie looked over his radar as he swerved the final corner. There, in the headlights, was Mikey, crouched over a small bundle of black fabric. Donnie slowed the slider to a stop and squinted at the bundle. Well, Mikey had gotten one thing right…it was defiantly human.

"Donnie! You're here!" Mikey stood, running up to the sewer slider and practically dragging his brother out. "She's real bad Don, she's going cold."

Don frowned, following a startlingly upset Mikey back to the small figure splayed on the ground. He did a quick once over of the girl and instantly found several things that needed to be handled immediately. She was bleeding heavily from her side, Donnie could tell even through the scarf Mikey had tied around the wound. And she had a cut on her forehead, which was starting to bruise up rather badly. That meant she would probably have a concussion. Who knows how many more injuries were hidden beneath her clothes.

"Mikey, I need you to grab the stretcher from the back of the slider. Have you moved her since you found her?"

"Rolled her over onto her back and been keeping pressure on the wound near her hip, that's it." Mikey jumped to his assigned task as he answered.

Donnie nodded as he removed the girls shoes, lifting her leg and bending it at the knee to check for any noticeable breaks, then proceeding to do the same to all her other limbs. All the bones seemed fine, but her ankle was swelling. Very, very carefully, Donnie flipped the woman onto her stomach and, pulling out his pocket-knife, cut her jacket and shirt away from her skin.

"What are you doing?"

Donnie nearly jumped out of his shell as Mikey reappeared next to him with stretcher.

"Checking for any obvious spinal injuries" He said briskly, tracing his fingers over the woman's back and up her neck to the base of her skull. "If she's sustained any obvious damage we won't be able to move her from here. It would be too risky." A second check of her spine revealed nothing obviously wrong and Donnie sighed.

"Problem is, I don't have an x-ray to check properly, so there might be something I can't find just by feeling the spine. But she'll bleed out if we don't do something soon so we're going to have to risk it." So saying, Donnie carefully lent the woman onto her side and looked to his rather pale brother "I need you to slide the stretcher under her, and then help me lean her onto it. We need to try and keep her straight."

Mikey nodded and did as he was told, helping Donnie to shift the girl onto the stretcher and then move her to the slider, strapping her down.

"I'm going to need you to drive" Donnie said slowly, eyeing Mikey. "Carefully, get us all home in one piece. I'll do what I can while we're moving, but I need to get her back to the lair." He paused as Mikey nodded and jumped into the drivers seat of the slider, starting it up. "Call Leo and Raphael as well." Donnie finally called over the noise of the engine.

"Tell Leo to clear the lounge room, move the kitchen table into it and cover it with as many clean sheets as he can find, put the plastic sheet from the medical storage cupboard over it, get the first aid kit out and boil some water. Tell him its an emergency and hang up before he can ask any questions. Then call Raph and tell him to get his shell back to the lair ASAP…and make sure you answer any questions he has."

Mikey frowned as he carefully steered the slider around the tight sewer tunnel corners, glancing back at his brother.

"Why am I answering Raph's questions?" He called back, flicking the headlights on full and speeding up. Donnie smiled to himself as he pulled out what little medical supplies he had with him and began cutting away the remainder of the woman's jacket and shirt.

"Because unlike Leo, Raph won't do anything you tell him to do unless you explain the situation."

Mikey huffed quietly into the noise of the slider but didn't argue. It was true.

* * *

Raph snorted in amusement and took another swig of his beer as Casey ended his impersonation of April in a bad mood. Today was turning out to be a pretty good day. He had cold beer, a higher body count than Casey, and the shell cycle was running flawlessly thanks to his new tweeks.

Well, it was turning out to be a good day until his shell cell started beeping urgently and vibrating its way around the coffee table of Casey and Aprils apartment. Phone calls on the shell cell generally meant Leo nowadays, and Leo generally meant…well, nothing good.

Raph winced and stared at the little phone, willing it to stop. Of course, it didn't stop, and its insistence led Raph to jump to the only logical conclusion. Leo was about to get back on his case again, and he sure as hell wasn't going to give up until he got his 'leader' power dose for the day.

"What?" Raph barked down the line when he finally decided to answer (a decision helped on by an annoyed groan from a rather tipsy Casey)

"Raph! Finally! Its Mikey, you need to get back to the lair as soon as you can…like, now as soon as you can!"

Raph frowned and carefully set his beer bottle on the coffee table.

"Why? What'd you do?" There was a dramatic huff from the other end of the line, barely audible over the dull roar or an engine. It sounded like the sewer slider. What was Mikey doing in the sewer slider? "Mikey…where's Don?" If Mikey was in the sewer slider, Donnie would be either really pissed off, or nearby.

"Donnie's in the back! With the girl. And why does everyone assume I did something wrong?"

Despite Raph's now rising concern for whatever situation Mikey had found himself in (because the words 'With the girl' didn't bode well) the beer seemed to have loosened his tongue a little and an offhanded, incredibly inappropriate comment slipped out.

"Mikey, your tellin' me you finally found yaself a girl, and Don's the one scorin'?"

Another huff, and a faint worried yell from someone in the background. A yell that sounded kinda Donnieish. Why did Donnie sound worried? Raph couldn't make out anything much, but Mikey had gone quiet on his end of the line, then there was a whistling sound as if the phone had been thrown.

"Hey, anyone there?" Raph called into the speaker, starting to get worried.

"Raph, no more crap, don't ask questions, just go to the nearest hospital you can find and get your hands on a couple of bags of IV drip out of one of their ambulances. I don't care how you do it, just do it fast and don't get caught or seen. Then get yourself back to the lair. Mikey found a girl down in the sewers and she's lost a lot of blood. I don't know her blood type, but a couple IV's should pull her through." It was Donnie on the line now, and he was talking in his 'doctor' voice. Donnie only used that voice when one of his brothers was badly injured or very sick. Raph knew that voice, and he knew not to screw with Don when he started talking like that.

"Got it." He murmured into the phone, then, not waiting for a reply (since he knew he wouldn't get one) clicked it shut and stood. "Sorry Case, gotta go" Casey didn't ask, he took one look at Raphs expression, nodded, and threw the turtle the keys to the shell cycle.

"Careful man" He muttered as Raph jumped the window ledge and slipped down the fire escape to the alley behind the building.

"What sort of shit you got yourself in now Mike?" Raph muttered to himself, keying the nearest hospitals location into the shell cycles built-in GPS and revving the engine. "What the hell'd you get us into now?"

* * *

Leo stared at the scene before him, feeling like someone had just injected him with more nervous energy than any normal person should be able to handle. Mikey had called ten minutes ago, and had hung up before he had gotten a word in edge ways. Then it had taken him about 5 minutes to set up the usual 'surgery', something he felt he had set up far too many times in his life.

The floor had been covered with a plastic sheet, and the table had been converted into a makeshift surgery slab. The coffee table, also covered with plastic, had all manner of sterilized tools and first aid equipment neatly arranged on it. Waiting for the next patient to come along.

Usually, Leo knew who was going to be on that table, whether it be for a quick stitch up or something a little more…major. But he didn't know who was the next person to be draped across the slab was going to be.

It was a girl. That was all he knew. A girl who was very badly hurt, and very unconscious. Apart from that, Mikey hadn't disclosed anything, and hadn't let Leo ask anything. The niggling sensations in the back of Leo's mind told him that Mikey had really enjoyed hanging up on his older brothers questioning…probably enjoyed it too much.

Leo wished Master Splinter were here. Master Splinter would be able to make heads or tails of what was going on…either that or he would have the authority to stop whatever was going on. But then, Master Splinter had been looking forward to heading to the Battle Nexus verse for a little 'tea time' with the Daimyo, and Leo wasn't even sure if there was enough time for him to try and contact his Master.

"Coming through!" The cry was accompanied with the loud hum of the sewer slider engines, and the scraping of the brick wall sliding up. Mikey was in the drivers seat. Which was very odd, and very scary at the same time. But Leo's worry was cut short as Donnie jumped from the back of the slider and started calling instructions.

And the rush started.

"Leo, get that water! Mikey, give me a hand!"

Leo quickly retreated into the kitchen, and Mikey vaulted to the back of the slider, gently helping Donnie lift their fragile cargo down and out onto the kitchen table in the middle of the room.

"What now?" Mikey asked quietly, watching as Donnie removed the straps binding the girl to the stretcher.

"Same as in the sewer only in reverse, grab the stretcher out from under her. Then I need you to wash your hands as thoroughly as you can and put on a couple pairs of those plastic gloves"

Mikey nodded and followed his instructions. Together, Donnie and Mikey managed to get the girl onto the table and the stretcher was very quickly put somewhere it wouldn't get in the way.

Mikey disappeared into the kitchen just as Leo emerged, carrying a steaming bowl of water. Donnie looked up at him as he approached and nodded approvingly.

"Leo, good. I need you to go through her things and see if you can find anything that can tell us who she is. Her clothes are on the back of the sewer slider. Keep an eye on her. I have to go wash up so I can start cleaning and stitching that wound. If she moves, tell me, if she even twitches, call me"

Leo nodded and watched Donnie dart into the kitchen. Then he turned to look at the 'patient'…

And felt his cheeks heating up terribly.

She was practically naked. Thought that shouldn't have concerned him, since you could barley see much of her skin through the blood soaked bandages wrapped around her side. But she was still practically naked. Leo found that very...not appropriate.

He swallowed and averted his eyes, cursing himself for acting this way in such a crisis. Clothes, he needed to go through her clothes. Striding away from the patient, Leo located her clothing and began sorting through it as fast as he could without missing anything, eyes continuously darting to the patient to check on her.

His search came up with fuck all, to put it politely.

There was nothing in her jacket, nothing tucked into the pockets of her jeans, not even anything inside her beanie or shoes. Leo frowned and went through the clothes again. Nothing.

"There's nothing here!" He called, turning back to the girl and watching Donnie and Mikey hurry back into the room.

"Fine. We're going to have to fluke it. Mikey, I need anesthetic and morphine, don't mix them up. Leo, go wash your hands" Donnie had begun carefully cutting away at the bandages as he was talking, slowly revealing a nasty hole slicing through her side.

"What…is that?" Mikey muttered, stopping his task for a second to stare at the wound. Donnie sent him a quick glare that got Mikey back on track before giving an answer.

"She was shot. I've already checked to see if there is any exit wound, and there is so we're lucky. But whatever gun was used put a pretty big hole in her. I have to figure out if there is anything vital damaged, and I have to do this without any equipment. Thank god none of us have ever been shot."

Leo sent a quiet word of thanks to the heavens as well, remembering every shattering gunshot that had ever hurled its way towards he and his brothers. They had all been very, very lucky. The worst they'd had from a gunshot was a minor flesh wound.

The 'operation' took a little under an hour. Raph arrived half way through to find his brothers working like mad men possessed. He was instantly thrown into the fray, thought there was little he could do once he had handed over the IV drips to his purple clad brother. He settled for sitting at the head of the operating table, a finger pressed to the girl's slim throat, counting the beats of her pulse.

The bullet, Donnie was glad to find, had not hit anything vital, though it had caused quite a bit of damage and it would leave a scar. The wound was cleaned, sterilized and stitched, then bandaged with gauze, medical tape and pressure bandages.

The rest of her injuries were relatively minor, her wrist was sprained, and the cut on her forehead needed several stitches to pull it together. The cut on the back of her head was a little more difficult to deal with, but it stopped bleeding a little while after Donnie had cleaned and bandaged it.

The only other issue Donnie managed to find was her ankle, her wrist was just a minor sprain. Her ankle however was bruised and swollen when he removed her boot, but there was something obviously wrong with it besides a sprain. It was only slight, but the angle of her foot was a little off, and the bruising seemed to pull and twist in the wrong places.

"Shit" Everyone around the operating table looked up when Donnie swore loudly into the silence.

"What? What's wrong?" Mikey muttered, mid way through patching up one of the girls lesser cuts and scrapes. Surprisingly, Mikey had been one of the more helpful of the turtle brothers. Unlike Raphael and Leonardo, Mikey had made it his personal vendetta to keep the girl living.

"I think her ankle is broken." Donnie answered, racking his brain for something close by he might be able to use to see the fracture. Raph and Leo exchanged glances across the table before Leo spoke.

"Can't you check with the scanner in your lab?" He asked with a frown. Raph nodded, unconsciously rubbing his left knuckles, remembering his last trip to the scanner in Donnie's lab.

"If we move her now we might risk re-opening something, or waking her up…" Mikey said simply. Wide eyes turned to him, as he went back to cleaning the smaller cuts up the girls' arms. He looked up when silence met his statement and glared at his astonished brothers. "What?" He asked incredulously. Donnie just shook his head and smiled tightly at his brother.

"What Mikey said," He muttered, gently running his fingers over the bruised skin around the girls foot and frowning again. "We'll have to wait until she looks like she totally stabilised, then get her to the lab to set the bone."

Everyone nodded. There was silence for a while as Donnie continued to examine the girls ankle and Mikey finished cleaning up the last scrape on the girls hand.

"So…what do we do wit her now?" Raph finally asked, his fingers still tracing the girls pulse on her neck. Everything stopped abruptly. Mikey shot Raph a warning look, eyes narrowing.

"Well, I'm sure we could always return her to the people who did this to her" He said, taking an almost defensive position over the girls limp body. Raph huffed at his brother incredulously, teeth gritted at the mere suggestion that he would be so callous and stupid.

"Ya know what I mean Mike, we can't let her wake up to all this" He motioned around the lair "We don't even know who she is! For all we know she could be a Foot, or even a Purple Dragon"

Leo nodded at his side in agreement, pulling off his blood covered gloves. Mikey glanced between them and raised an eyeridge.

"Since when do you two agree on anything" He asked, returning his attention to the girl. Donnie sighed and interrupted what he knew was about to become an argument.

"Or she could just be the victim of a mugging gone wrong." Donnie said simply, eyeing his brothers. "Think about it, no valuables on her at all, no tattoos, and Mikey and I are sure no one was following us or tracking her." He signed and rubbed his temples, stepping away from the table.

"Plus, let's face it, she doesn't have enough muscle to be a Foot, and she was going to die from the bullet wound without intervention. Mikey's decision to go out skating was completely random, and if anyone was going to try and get to us they would put their bait somewhere more obvious…" He trailed off suddenly; his eyes wide and focused back on the girl.

"Donnie? What's wrong?" Mikey asked, following Don's gaze back to their patient.

All his brothers stared in unison horror as the young girls eyes swivelled over them, wide and unfocused as her mouth opened to what they presumed to be a coming scream.

* * *

For a brief millisecond of her newly found consciousness, Judith was sure she was dead. The strange floating sensation tingling up and around her body was positively out of this world, and she couldn't seem to focus on anything in particular. Then the soft voices in the back of her mind, the ones that were immediately obvious from the moment she had clicked back to understanding, started to get louder. She tried very hard to listen to the voices, finally managing to make one of them blare into focus.

"…she doesn't have the muscle to be in the Foot, and she sure as hell was going to die from the bullet in her side…" The voice was very nice, a soothing sound that made her sigh a little. She didn't open her eyes, it didn't seem that important of a thing to try and do. She felt hazy and almost a little tipsy.

"Mikey's decision to go out skating was completely random, and if anyone was going to try and get to us…" The voice was continuing. Who was Mikey? Why was someone going to try and get to the voice?

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Judith clicked into the fact that the voice was actually talking about her originally. Because she had been shot in the side hadn't she? Wait…

Suddenly, the past events before her death spiraled back into her head and opening her eyes seemed to become imperative. She snapped them open, blinded momentarily by the light before her eyes began to adjust. Everything was a little blurry at first, and she still couldn't seem to get the glassy haze out from her consciousness to make herself focus.

"Donnie? What's wrong?" Another voice, different from the first one. Judith forced her eyes to source out the location of the voice and stared momentarily at the blurred green and orange shape. Slowly the shape began to define itself…

Into a big turtle wearing a ninja mask.

Judith couldn't help herself.

She giggled.

"Why…is you…r ma…s….k orange?" she slurred out through her almost numbed lips, still trying to strangle her giggles. For some reason, this very realistic humanoid turtle seemed incredibly funny, and the terrible events that had forced her to open her eyes didn't rank as important anymore.

"Ah…" The turtle seemed taken back, his brows furrowing before he leant in towards her. "Is she alright?"

Judith giggled again and reached out, trying to touch his creased forehead, and confused as to why she couldn't seem to do it.

"Come…here" She slurred again, trying to sit up and gain better leverage towards her target. She gasped and fell back into the hard surface she was on, a burbled squeal making it out of her throat. That had hurt lots. "Ow!" She complained in a long whine, trying to open her eyes again. Blinking seemed suddenly hard.

"Stay still" There was another of the funny turtle things hovering over her now, she knew it wasn't the same one because this one had a purple ninja mask on. Some part of her was screaming that something was very wrong, that ninja masked turtles were not real, that she shouldn't feel so very much like she was floating, but she ignored it.

"What?" She gurgled out to him, giggling again, her pain all but forgotten. "What…why is yyooooouuuuurrrr mask purp…le" She reached up and poked his cheek, happy to find that her finger made contact with her intended target this time. But he seemed a little blurry, obviously she needed to get closer to have a better look.

She tried to sit up again, having somehow forgotten what happened when she tried to move, and found that she couldn't. The turtle above her had pinned her to the surface she was on, his hands were really big and warm, and they were holding her shoulders in place. Judith decided she didn't mind being pinned to whatever she was lying on.

"Your hands are big." She informed him, blinking very slowly, trying to be serious. Suddenly the hands were gone, and the turtle was even more blurry. Judith groaned and flexed her fingers towards the blurry figure

"Hhh-eeeeyyyy! Come back! Cooommmee baaaccckkkk!" Her voice suddenly sounded funny and she began giggling again. "Tttuuuuurrrrtttlllleee!" She sang joyously, giggling hysterically "Purple tuuurtle! Come back purple tuuurrrtle!"

"What…the fuck"

Her eyes swivelled to the next voice, trying and focus.

She gasped, attempting to point at the other two turtles standing further back, but her arm felt heavy and it flopped down almost as soon as she got it up.

What was wrong with her?

"More!" She cooed, unable to stop herself grinning at the other two "Four little turtles" and she was suddenly dizzy, her vision fading in and out. She huffed, feeling like the air had been taken out of her.

What the hell was wrong with her?

"What…what is your name?" The question came from the blue turtle, and Judith forced herself to focus.

"What's your name?" She asked in retaliation, a sudden wave of indignation surging at that particular question.

"I am Leonardo," He said quietly, coming forward so he was easier to focus on. Judith smiled at him, all trace of annoyance gone.

"I'm Judith…I'm not feeling so good." Yes, that seemed important to tell him. "I think I'm floating. Am I floating?"

Leonardo was nice, he touched one warm hand to her forehead and rested the other on her shoulder.

"Floating?" He asked quietly. Judith nodded, her head bobbing against his hand.

"Yes. Like a few years ago when my friend took me to a party, and everyone was smoking pot. Like, the house was filled with the smoke and I inhaled some second hand before I left really quickly, and I had to pull over because I felt all floaty and then I called my dad and he had to come and pick me up. He turned in all the people at the party to the cops and now I don't talk to that friend anymore…" the words came out in a huge rush of air and Judith had to gasp to re-fill her lungs. Suddenly there was a loud laugh from somewhere beside her. She lolled her head to the side to look at the red turtle as he laughed.

She didn't think it was a funny story.

"She's high!" The red one suddenly accused. Shuddering slightly with his laughter.

It took a moment of silence for Judith to take his accusation in before anger exploded through her. That seemed to make sense, that's what was wrong with her, but how could she be high? Unless someone had drugged her.

"No." She said softly, fear beginning to burn through her in place of the anger as the memories of just why she was hurting began to spiral back. The only other people who could have made her like this was the creatures in the room with her "I am not! I Am Not! I AM NOT I AM NOT" The words blended as her whispers became screams, until she was just screaming, struggling at the calming hands of Leonardo.

"Dammit Raph!" The purple one had blocked her view of the red turtle and Judith struggled harder, ignoring the pain that rippled through her. His hands joined Leonardo's to keep her still. Faintly, she realised someone was holding her legs down too.

They were with the people that attacked her before. They had to be, that was the only explanation that entered her muddled and hazy mind. Judith went suddenly still, they were going to kill her, they had found her in the sewers and they were going to kill her. Her hands found Leonardo's shoulder and tears began to well in her eyes, making everything even more blurry.

She had to convince them to let her go.

"I didn't see anything! I swear. I won't tell anyone about the man you shot. I won't tell anyone! I won't! I'll go home, I'll leave, I won't tell anyone about you people. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry…please…" Her fingers clawed at Leonardo's shoulders, eyes frantic between the two turtles hovering over her "I don't want to die."

The turtles drew away slightly in what seemed to be shock and glanced at each other.

"We won't hurt you" Leonardo said gently, confusion drawing his brows together. Judith sucked in air through the sudden pain that was working its way into her conscious, her muddled mind trying to decide if he was telling the truth, trying to see things clearly. "Tell me what happened Judith, and we'll make sure no-one hurts you"

Her breath caught as the other turtles all came into view, all four of them crowded over her. They were big. She was scared.

But she believed them. Maybe, perhaps...yes.

So she explained as best she could, between the dizzy feelings of amusement, fear and fatigue that rushed through her at random intervals without her control. The smooth warm hands of Leonardo and the Purple turtle comforted her, making it easier to talk, to believe their continued assurances that they weren't the bad guys.

At certain points, the fear seemed amplified and Judith had to breathe heavily to try and focus. When she had finished she was beginning to notice that the dull ache that had been amplifying all the way through her story was specific to certain spots on her body, and her brain was clearing of the strange fog. She wondered faintly where her phone was.

"It's alright Judith" The purple turtle said quietly, his hand cupping still on her shoulder. "You're safe here. We'll make sure you stay safe ok. We're your friends, we won't hurt you"

Judith nodded, vaguely wondering how a turtle could talk.

"Who are you?" She asked to the room as the fatigue caught up with her.

"This is Raphael" The purple one said gently, touching the red turtle on the shoulder "and that's Michelangelo" He pointed at the orange masked turtle who smiled at her.

"Call me Mikey" The orange one said, touching her hand carefully as a form of greeting. Judith nodded.

"Mikey, Rapha…Raphael…Leonardo" She looked at the purple turtle expectantly.

"I'm Donatello" He said softy. Judith nodded again.

"They're nice names" She decided as the black that had been creeping in on her vision took over.

* * *

Donnie slumped back against the wall as Judith's eyes fluttered and her breathing steadied. A strange tension filled silence burned the room as his brothers absorbed what they had just heard.

"Why was she high?" Raph finally probed, his eyes still locked on Judith's face. Donnie groaned and stared at the morphine bottle on the coffee table.

"My fault" He said, raising his hand "I think I probably gave her the same amount of morphine we need. Our metabolisms are different, she's smaller too…we need more to feel it…" He was such an idiot. Mikey came to stand next to him, patting his shoulder.

"No harm bro, and that had to be the best reaction we've ever had from human"

A slight chuckle ran through the four turtles. It was true, and distinctly depressing, the very best reaction they had had from a human was from a girl who was high on morphine.

"At least we know she was being honest. We can probably trust her story since she wasn't in control of what she was saying. You did us a favour Don" Leo smiled at his brother comfortingly. The silence returned

"Fucking Purple Dragons…" Raph suddenly hissed, punching a nearby wall with enough force to put a slight crack in the brick. None of his brothers argued with his outburst, not even Leonardo, who was always on about control.

They were all thinking it. How could the Purple Dragons have been stupid enough to do something like this? They were street thugs, and as far as the turtles knew, they hadn't killed a person since they had gone 'legit' after Shredder was defeated. Hun wasn't stupid, if anyone died by a Purple Dragon's hand, the cops would suddenly have a reason to shut down his now thriving empire, and with the turtles on the watch, and there would be no possibility of the cops missing the killing.

So why had Hun, the Purple Dragon leader, fired with the intent to kill an innocent girl, in broad daylight. What was he trading that was worth losing everything he had?

Judith stirred and winced slightly before her breathing evened out again. All four brothers turned to look at her, their concern obvious.

It seemed ridiculously easy to care about this girl despite not knowing her identity or intent.

Maybe it was because they had saved her life.

None of the boys had ever really seen a human die, really watched it happen. On the battlefield, things moved too quickly for you to asses who was dead or not. They'd never had an young, bloodied woman sprawled on their table about to die before.

They'd never had to stitch a complete stranger up, clean her blood off their hands. It had been ridiculously easy to hush her fears and tell her it would be alright.

To promise her safety.

"She can't go back up top for a while" Leo said pacing the length of the table. He had obviously been thinking along the same lines Donnie was. "Whatever Hun was trading, he'd kill to keep anyone from knowing about it. He'll probably hunt her down until she's either dead or he's convinced she won't talk"

Raph nodded, having leaned himself against the wall of the lair nearby.

"She'll stay here a while" He declared, eyeing his other brothers for any protests. No one gave any. In fact, Mickey smiled and nodded a little eagerly.

"She can stay in my room. I'll get it ready" He said simply, ignoring the raised eye-ridges that shot up around him and heading for the door.

"Or…" Leo grabbed Mikey before he got anywhere "She could stay in my room, it's less like a bomb site, there more space and it's the only room in the lair with a door. I don't mind sleeping in the dojo"

Mikey rolled his eyes but said nothing in his defence. Donnie supposed this was because Mikey didn't want to clean his room.

"Raph?" Leo continued, patting Mikey on the back "Can you please get the room ready? Mikey, help Donnie clean up. I'm going to try and contact Master Splinter"

Donnie winced. He had almost forgotten about Master Splinter. How were they going to explain this?

**A Ninja's Dance**

**Chapter 2**

It took Donnie all of 15 minutes to get out of the lair and make his way to Mikey's location in the sewer slider. Those 15 minutes were spent alternating between frustration and worry. He was worried about Mikey, because as far as he knew, this 'girl' he had found was a foot, or a Purple Dragon, just waiting to have the right opportunity pop up.

Yet at the same time he was worried about the girl too, because if she wasn't a Foot or a Purple Dragon (and if she was as banged up as Mikey seemed to think), then she needed medical attention. Fast. Donnie only hoped he could.

"Don!"

Donnie looked over his radar as he swerved the final corner. There, in the headlights, was Mikey, crouched over a small bundle of black fabric. Donnie slowed the slider to a stop and squinted at the bundle. Well, Mikey had gotten one thing right…it was defiantly human.

"Donnie! You're here!" Mikey stood, running up to the sewer slider and practically dragging his brother out. "She's real bad Don, she's going cold."

Don frowned, following a startlingly upset Mikey back to the small figure splayed on the ground. He did a quick once over of the girl and instantly found several things that needed to be handled immediately. She was bleeding heavily from her side, Donnie could tell even through the scarf Mikey had tied around the wound. And she had a cut on her forehead, which was starting to bruise up rather badly. That meant she would probably have a concussion. Who knows how many more injuries were hidden beneath her clothes.

"Mikey, I need you to grab the stretcher from the back of the slider. Have you moved her since you found her?"

"Rolled her over onto her back and been keeping pressure on the wound near her hip, that's it." Mikey jumped to his assigned task as he answered.

Donnie nodded as he removed the girls shoes, lifting her leg and bending it at the knee to check for any noticeable breaks, then proceeding to do the same to all her other limbs. All the bones seemed fine, but her ankle was swelling. Very, very carefully, Donnie flipped the woman onto her stomach and, pulling out his pocket-knife, cut her jacket and shirt away from her skin.

"What are you doing?"

Donnie nearly jumped out of his shell as Mikey reappeared next to him with stretcher.

"Checking for any obvious spinal injuries" He said briskly, tracing his fingers over the woman's back and up her neck to the base of her skull. "If she's sustained any obvious damage we won't be able to move her from here. It would be too risky." A second check of her spine revealed nothing obviously wrong and Donnie sighed.

"Problem is, I don't have an x-ray to check properly, so there might be something I can't find just by feeling the spine. But she'll bleed out if we don't do something soon so we're going to have to risk it." So saying, Donnie carefully lent the woman onto her side and looked to his rather pale brother "I need you to slide the stretcher under her, and then help me lean her onto it. We need to try and keep her straight."

Mikey nodded and did as he was told, helping Donnie to shift the girl onto the stretcher and then move her to the slider, strapping her down.

"I'm going to need you to drive" Donnie said slowly, eyeing Mikey. "Carefully, get us all home in one piece. I'll do what I can while we're moving, but I need to get her back to the lair." He paused as Mikey nodded and jumped into the drivers seat of the slider, starting it up. "Call Leo and Raphael as well." Donnie finally called over the noise of the engine.

"Tell Leo to set up the lair for an emergency operation and hang up before he can ask any questions. Then call Raph and tell him to get his shell back to the lair _ASAP_ **…** and make sure you answer any questions he has."

Mikey frowned as he carefully steered the slider around the tight sewer tunnel corners, glancing back at his brother.

"Why am I answering Raph's questions?" He called back, flicking the headlights on full and speeding up. Donnie smiled to himself as he pulled out what little medical supplies he had with him and began cutting away the remainder of the woman's jacket and shirt.

"Because unlike Leo, Raph won't do anything _you_ tell him to do unless you explain the situation."

Mikey huffed quietly into the noise of the slider but didn't argue. It was true.

* * *

Raph snorted in amusement and took another swig of his beer as Casey ended his impersonation of April in a bad mood. Today was turning out to be a pretty good day. He had cold beer, a higher body count than Casey, and the shell cycle was running flawlessly thanks to his new tweeks.

Well, it was turning out to be a good day until his shell cell started beeping urgently and vibrating its way around the coffee table of Casey and Aprils apartment. Phone calls on the shell cell generally meant Leo nowadays, and Leo generally meant…well, nothing good.

Raph winced and stared at the little phone, willing it to stop. Of course, it didn't stop, and its insistence led Raph to jump to the only logical conclusion. Leo was about to get back on his case again, and he sure as hell wasn't going to give up until he got his 'leader' power dose for the day.

"What?" Raph barked down the line when he finally decided to answer (a decision helped on by an annoyed groan from a rather tipsy Casey)

"Raph! Finally! Its Mikey, you need to get back to the lair as soon as you can…like, now as soon as you can!"

Raph frowned and carefully set his beer bottle on the coffee table.

"Why? What'd you do?" There was a dramatic huff from the other end of the line, barely audible over the dull roar or an engine. It sounded like the sewer slider. What was Mikey doing in the sewer slider? "Mikey…where's Don?" If Mikey was in the sewer slider, Donnie would be either really pissed off, or nearby.

"Donnie's in the back! With the girl. And why does everyone assume _I_ did something wrong?"

Despite Raph's now rising concern for whatever situation Mikey had found himself in (because the words 'With the girl' didn't bode well) the beer seemed to have loosened his tongue a little and an offhanded, incredibly inappropriate comment slipped out.

"Mikey, your tellin' me you finally found yaself a girl, and Don's the one scorin'?"

Another huff, and a faint worried yell from someone in the background. A yell that sounded kinda Donnieish. Why did Donnie sound worried? Raph couldn't make out anything much, but Mikey had gone quiet on his end of the line, then there was a whistling sound as if the phone had been thrown.

"Hey, anyone there?" Raph called into the speaker, starting to get worried.

"Raph, no more crap, don't ask questions, just go to the nearest hospital you can find and get your hands on a couple of bags of IV drip out of one of their ambulances. I don't care how you do it, just do it fast and don't get caught or seen. Then get yourself back to the lair. Mikey found a girl down in the sewers and she's lost a lot of blood. I don't know her blood type, but a couple IV's should pull her through." It was Donnie on the line now, and he was talking in his 'doctor' voice. Donnie only used that voice when one of his brothers was badly injured or very sick. Raph knew that voice, and he knew not to screw with Don when he started talking like that.

"Got it." He murmured into the phone, then, not waiting for a reply (since he knew he wouldn't get one) clicked it shut and stood. "Sorry Case, gotta go" Casey didn't ask, he took one look at Raphs expression, nodded, and threw the turtle the keys to the shell cycle.

"Careful man" He muttered as Raph jumped the window ledge and slipped down the fire escape to the alley behind the building.

"What sort of shit you got yourself in now Mike?" Raph muttered to himself, keying the nearest hospitals location into the shell cycles built-in GPS and revving the engine. "What the hell'd you get _us_ into?"

* * *

Leo stared at the scene before him, feeling like someone had just injected him with more nervous energy than any normal person should be able to handle. Mikey had called ten minutes ago, and had hung up before he had gotten a word in edge ways. Then it had taken him about 5 minutes to set up the usual 'surgery', something he felt he had set up far too many times in his life.

The floor had been covered with a plastic sheet, and the table had been converted into a makeshift surgery slab. The coffee table, also covered with plastic, had all manner of sterilized tools and first aid equipment neatly arranged on it. Waiting for the next patient to come along.

Usually, Leo knew who was going to be on that table, whether it be for a quick stitch up or something a little more…major. But he didn't know who was the next person to be draped across the slab was going to be.

It was a girl. That was all he knew. A girl who was very badly hurt, and very unconscious. Apart from that, Mikey hadn't disclosed anything, and hadn't let Leo ask anything. The niggling sensations in the back of Leo's mind told him that Mikey had really enjoyed hanging up on his older brothers questioning…probably enjoyed it too much.

Leo wished Master Splinter were here. Master Splinter would be able to make heads or tails of what was going on…either that or he would have the authority to _stop_ whatever was going on. But then, Master Splinter had been looking forward to heading to the Battle Nexus verse for a little 'tea time' with the Daimyo, and Leo wasn't even sure if there was enough time for him to try and contact his Master.

"Coming through!" The cry was accompanied with the loud hum of the sewer slider engines, and the scraping of the brick wall sliding up. Mikey was in the drivers seat. Which was very odd, and very scary at the same time. But Leo's worry was cut short as Donnie jumped from the back of the slider and started calling instructions.

And the rush started.

"Leo, get that water! Mikey, give me a hand!"

Leo quickly retreated into the kitchen, and Mikey vaulted to the back of the slider, gently helping Donnie lift their fragile cargo down and out onto the kitchen table in the middle of the room.

"What now?" Mikey asked quietly, watching as Donnie removed the straps binding the girl to the stretcher.

"Same as in the sewer only in reverse, grab the stretcher out from under her. Then I need you to wash your hands as thoroughly as you can and put on a couple pairs of those plastic gloves"

Mikey nodded and followed his instructions. Together, Donnie and Mikey managed to get the girl onto the table and the stretcher was very quickly put somewhere it wouldn't get in the way.

Mikey disappeared into the kitchen just as Leo emerged, carrying a steaming bowl of water. Donnie looked up at him as he approached and nodded approvingly.

"Leo, good. I need you to go through her things and see if you can find anything that can tell us who she is. Her clothes are on the back of the sewer slider. Keep an eye on her. I have to go wash up so I can start cleaning and stitching that wound. If she moves, tell me, if she even twitches, call me"

Leo nodded and watched Donnie dart into the kitchen. Then he turned to look at the 'patient'…

And felt his cheeks heating up terribly.

She was practically naked. Thought that shouldn't have concerned him, since you could barley see much of her skin through the blood soaked bandages wrapped around her side. But she was still practically naked. Leo found that very...not appropriate.

He swallowed and averted his eyes, cursing himself for acting this way in such a crisis. Clothes, he needed to go through her clothes. Striding away from the patient, Leo located her clothing and began sorting through it as fast as he could without missing anything, eyes continuously darting to the patient to check on her.

His search came up with fuck all, to put it politely.

There was nothing in her jacket, nothing tucked into the pockets of her jeans, not even anything inside her beanie or shoes. Leo frowned and went through the clothes again. Nothing.

"There's nothing here!" He called, turning back to the girl and watching Donnie and Mikey hurry back into the room.

"Fine. We're going to have to fluke it. Mikey, I need anesthetic and morphine, don't mix them up. Leo, go wash your hands" Donnie had begun carefully cutting away at the bandages as he was talking, slowly revealing a nasty hole slicing through her side.

"What…is that?" Mikey muttered, stopping his task for a second to stare at the wound. Donnie sent him a quick glare that got Mikey back on track before giving an answer.

"She was shot. I've already checked to see if there is any exit wound, and there is so we're lucky. But whatever gun was used put a pretty big hole in her. I have to figure out if there is anything vital damaged, and I have to do this without any equipment. Thank god none of us have ever been shot."

Leo sent a quiet word of thanks to the heavens as well, remembering every shattering gunshot that had ever hurled its way towards he and his brothers. They had all been very, very lucky. The worst they'd had from a gunshot was a minor flesh wound.

The 'operation' took a little under an hour. Raph arrived half way through to find his brothers working like mad men possessed. He was instantly thrown into the fray, thought there was little he could do once he had handed over the IV drips to his purple clad brother. He settled for sitting at the head of the operating table, a finger pressed to the girl's slim throat, counting the beats of her pulse.

The bullet, Donnie was glad to find, had not hit anything vital, though it had caused quite a bit of damage and it would leave a scar. The wound was cleaned, sterilized and stitched, then bandaged with gauze, medical tape and pressure bandages.

The rest of her injuries were relatively minor, her wrist was sprained, and the cut on her forehead needed several stitches to pull it together. The cut on the back of her head was a little more difficult to deal with, but it stopped bleeding a little while after Donnie had cleaned and bandaged it.

The only other issue Donnie managed to find was her ankle, her wrist was just a minor sprain. Her ankle however was bruised and swollen when he removed her boot, but there was something obviously wrong with it besides a sprain. It was only slight, but the angle of her foot was a little off, and the bruising seemed to pull and twist in the wrong places.

"Shit" Everyone around the operating table looked up when Donnie swore loudly into the silence.

"What? What's wrong?" Mikey muttered, mid way through patching up one of the girls lesser cuts and scrapes. Surprisingly, Mikey had been one of the more helpful of the turtle brothers. Unlike Raphael and Leonardo, Mikey had made it his personal vendetta to keep the girl living.

"I think her ankle is broken." Donnie answered, racking his brain for something close by he might be able to use to see the fracture. Raph and Leo exchanged glances across the table before Leo spoke.

"Can't you check with the scanner in your lab?" He asked with a frown. Raph nodded, unconsciously rubbing his left knuckles, remembering his last trip to the scanner in Donnie's lab.

"If we move her now we might risk re-opening something, or waking her up…" Mikey said simply. Wide eyes turned to him, as he went back to cleaning the smaller cuts up the girls' arms. He looked up when silence met his statement and glared at his astonished brothers. "What?" He asked incredulously. Donnie just shook his head and smiled tightly at his brother.

"What Mikey said," He muttered, gently running his fingers over the bruised skin around the girls foot and frowning again. "We'll have to wait until she looks like she totally stabilised, then get her to the lab to set the bone."

Everyone nodded. There was silence for a while as Donnie continued to examine the girls ankle and Mikey finished cleaning up the last scrape on the girls hand.

"So…what do we do wit her now?" Raph finally asked, his fingers still tracing the girls pulse on her neck. Everything stopped abruptly. Mikey shot Raph a warning look, eyes narrowing.

"Well, I'm sure we could always return her to the people who did this to her" He said, taking an almost defensive position over the girls limp body. Raph huffed at his brother incredulously, teeth gritted at the mere suggestion that he would be so callous and stupid.

"Ya know what I mean Mike, we can't let her wake up to all this" He motioned around the lair "We don't even know who she is! For all we know she could be a Foot, or even a Purple Dragon"

Leo nodded at his side in agreement, pulling off his blood covered gloves. Mikey glanced between them and raised an eyeridge.

"Since when do you two agree on anything" He asked, returning his attention to the girl. Donnie sighed and interrupted what he knew was about to become an argument.

"Or she could just be the victim of a mugging gone wrong." Donnie said simply, eyeing his brothers. "Think about it, no valuables on her at all, no tattoos, and Mikey and I are sure no one was following us or tracking her." He signed and rubbed his temples, stepping away from the table.

"Plus, let's face it, she doesn't have enough muscle to be a Foot, and she was going to die from the bullet wound without intervention. Mikey's decision to go out skating was completely random, and if anyone was going to try and get to us they would put their bait somewhere more obvious…" He trailed off suddenly; his eyes wide and focused back on the girl.

"Donnie? What's wrong?" Mikey asked, following Don's gaze back to their patient.

All his brothers stared in unison horror as the young girls eyes swivelled over them, wide and unfocused as her mouth opened to what they presumed to be a coming scream.

* * *

For a brief millisecond of her newly found consciousness, Judith was sure she was dead. The strange floating sensation tingling up and around her body was positively out of this world, and she couldn't seem to focus on anything in particular. Then the soft voices in the back of her mind, the ones that were immediately obvious from the moment she had clicked back to understanding, started to get louder. She tried very hard to listen to the voices, finally managing to make one of them blare into focus.

"…she doesn't have the muscle to be in the Foot, and she sure as hell was going to die from the bullet in her side…" The voice was very nice, a soothing sound that made her sigh a little. She didn't open her eyes, it didn't seem that important of a thing to try and do. She felt hazy and almost a little tipsy.

"Mikey's decision to go out skating was completely random, and if anyone was going to try and get to us…" The voice was continuing. Who was Mikey? Why was someone going to try and get to the voice?

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Judith clicked into the fact that the voice was actually talking about her originally. Because she had been shot in the side hadn't she? Wait…

Suddenly, the past events before her death spiraled back into her head and opening her eyes seemed to become imperative. She snapped them open, blinded momentarily by the light before her eyes began to adjust. Everything was a little blurry at first, and she still couldn't seem to get the glassy haze out from her consciousness to make herself focus.

"Donnie? What's wrong?" Another voice, different from the first one. Judith forced her eyes to source out the location of the voice and stared momentarily at the blurred green and orange shape. Slowly the shape began to define itself…

Into a big turtle wearing a ninja mask.

Judith couldn't help herself.

She giggled.

"Why…is you…r ma…s….k orange?" she slurred out through her almost numbed lips, still trying to strangle her giggles. For some reason, this very realistic humanoid turtle seemed incredibly funny, and the terrible events that had forced her to open her eyes didn't rank as important anymore.

"Ah…" The turtle seemed taken back, his brows furrowing before he leant in towards her. "Is she alright?"

Judith giggled again and reached out, trying to touch his creased forehead, and confused as to why she couldn't seem to do it.

"Come…here" She slurred again, trying to sit up and gain better leverage towards her target. She gasped and fell back into the hard surface she was on, a burbled squeal making it out of her throat. That had hurt lots. "Ow!" She complained in a long whine, trying to open her eyes again. Blinking seemed suddenly hard.

"Stay still" There was another of the funny turtle things hovering over her now, she knew it wasn't the same one because this one had a purple ninja mask on. Some part of her was screaming that something was very wrong, that ninja masked turtles were not real, that she shouldn't feel so very much like she was floating, but she ignored it.

"What?" She gurgled out to him, giggling again, her pain all but forgotten. "What…why is yyooooouuuuurrrr mask purp…le" She reached up and poked his cheek, happy to find that her finger made contact with her intended target this time. But he seemed a little blurry, obviously she needed to get closer to have a better look.

She tried to sit up again, having somehow forgotten what happened when she tried to move, and found that she couldn't. The turtle above her had pinned her to the surface she was on, his hands were really big and warm, and they were holding her shoulders in place. Judith decided she didn't mind being pinned to whatever she was lying on.

"Your hands are big." She informed him, blinking very slowly, trying to be serious. Suddenly the hands were gone, and the turtle was even more blurry. Judith groaned and flexed her fingers towards the blurry figure

"Hhh-eeeeyyyy! Come back! Cooommmee baaaccckkkk!" Her voice suddenly sounded funny and she began giggling again. "Tttuuuuurrrrtttlllleee!" She sang joyously, giggling hysterically "Purple tuuurtle! Come back purple tuuurrrtle!"

"What…the fuck"

Her eyes swivelled to the next voice, trying and focus.

She gasped, attempting to point at the other two turtles standing further back, but her arm felt heavy and it flopped down almost as soon as she got it up.

What was wrong with her?

"More!" She cooed, unable to stop herself grinning at the other two "Four little turtles" and she was suddenly dizzy, her vision fading in and out. She huffed, feeling like the air had been taken out of her.

What the hell was wrong with her?

"What…what is your name?" The question came from the blue turtle, and Judith forced herself to focus.

"What's _your_ name?" She asked in retaliation, a sudden wave of indignation surging at that particular question.

"I am Leonardo," He said quietly, coming forward so he was easier to focus on. Judith smiled at him, all trace of annoyance gone.

"I'm Judith…I'm not feeling so good." Yes, that seemed important to tell him. "I think I'm floating. Am I floating?"

Leonardo was nice, he touched one warm hand to her forehead and rested the other on her shoulder.

"Floating?" He asked quietly. Judith nodded, her head bobbing against his hand.

"Yes. Like a few years ago when my friend took me to a party, and everyone was smoking pot. Like, the house was filled with the smoke and I inhaled some second hand before I left really quickly, and I had to pull over because I felt all floaty and then I called my dad and he had to come and pick me up. He turned in all the people at the party to the cops and now I don't talk to that friend anymore…" the words came out in a huge rush of air and Judith had to gasp to re-fill her lungs. Suddenly there was a loud laugh from somewhere beside her. She lolled her head to the side to look at the red turtle as he laughed.

She didn't think it was a funny story.

"She's high!" The red one suddenly accused. Shuddering slightly with his laughter.

It took a moment of silence for Judith to take his accusation in before anger exploded through her. That seemed to make sense, that's what was wrong with her, but how could she be high? Unless someone had drugged her.

"No." She said softly, fear beginning to burn through her in place of the anger as the memories of just why she was hurting began to spiral back. The only other people who could have made her like this was the creatures in the room with her "I am not! I Am Not! I AM NOT I AM NOT" The words blended as her whispers became screams, until she was just screaming, struggling at the calming hands of Leonardo.

"Dammit Raph!" The purple one had blocked her view of the red turtle and Judith struggled harder, ignoring the pain that rippled through her. His hands joined Leonardo's to keep her still. Faintly, she realised someone was holding her legs down too.

They were with the people that attacked her before. They had to be, that was the only explanation that entered her muddled and hazy mind. Judith went suddenly still, they were going to kill her, they had found her in the sewers and they were going to kill her. Her hands found Leonardo's shoulder and tears began to well in her eyes, making everything even more blurry.

She had to convince them to let her go.

"I didn't see anything! I swear. I won't tell anyone about the man you shot. I won't tell anyone! I won't! I'll go home, I'll leave, I won't tell anyone about you people. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry…please…" Her fingers clawed at Leonardo's shoulders, eyes frantic between the two turtles hovering over her "I don't want to die."

The turtles drew away slightly in what seemed to be shock and glanced at each other.

"We won't hurt you" Leonardo said gently, confusion drawing his brows together. Judith sucked in air through the sudden pain that was working its way into her conscious, her muddled mind trying to decide if he was telling the truth, trying to see things clearly. "Tell me what happened Judith, and we'll make sure no-one hurts you"

Her breath caught as the other turtles all came into view, all four of them crowded over her. They were big. She was scared.

But she believed them. Maybe, perhaps...yes.

So she explained as best she could, between the dizzy feelings of amusement, fear and fatigue that rushed through her at random intervals without her control. The smooth warm hands of Leonardo and the Purple turtle comforted her, making it easier to talk, to believe their continued assurances that they weren't the bad guys.

At certain points, the fear seemed amplified and Judith had to breathe heavily to try and focus. When she had finished she was beginning to notice that the dull ache that had been amplifying all the way through her story was specific to certain spots on her body, and her brain was clearing of the strange fog. She wondered faintly where her phone was.

"It's alright Judith" The purple turtle said quietly, his hand cupping still on her shoulder. "You're safe here. We'll make sure you stay safe ok. We're your friends, we won't hurt you"

Judith nodded, vaguely wondering how a turtle could talk.

"Who are you?" She asked to the room as the fatigue caught up with her.

"This is Raphael" The purple one said gently, touching the red turtle on the shoulder "and that's Michelangelo" He pointed at the orange masked turtle who smiled at her.

"Call me Mikey" The orange one said, touching her hand carefully as a form of greeting. Judith nodded.

"Mikey, Rapha…Raphael…Leonardo" She looked at the purple turtle expectantly.

"I'm Donatello" He said softy. Judith nodded again.

"They're nice names" She decided as the black that had been creeping in on her vision took over.

* * *

Donnie slumped back against the wall as Judith's eyes fluttered and her breathing steadied. A strange tension filled silence burned the room as his brothers absorbed what they had just heard.

"Why was she high?" Raph finally probed, his eyes still locked on Judith's face. Donnie groaned and stared at the morphine bottle on the coffee table.

"My fault" He said, raising his hand "I think I probably gave her the same amount of morphine we need. Our metabolisms are different, she's smaller too…we need more to feel it…" He was such an idiot. Mikey came to stand next to him, patting his shoulder.

"No harm bro, and that had to be the best reaction we've ever had from human"

A slight chuckle ran through the four turtles. It was true, and distinctly depressing, the very best reaction they had had from a human was from a girl who was high on morphine.

"At least we know she was being honest. We can probably trust her story since she wasn't in control of what she was saying. You did us a favour Don" Leo smiled at his brother comfortingly. The silence returned

"Fucking Purple Dragons…" Raph suddenly hissed, punching a nearby wall with enough force to put a slight crack in the brick. None of his brothers argued with his outburst, not even Leonardo, who was always on about control.

They were all thinking it. How could the Purple Dragons have been stupid enough to do something like this? They were street thugs, and as far as the turtles knew, they hadn't killed a person since they had gone 'legit' after Shredder was defeated. Hun wasn't stupid, if anyone died by a Purple Dragon's hand, the cops would suddenly have a reason to shut down his now thriving empire, and with the turtles on the watch, and there would be no possibility of the cops missing the killing.

So why had Hun, the Purple Dragon leader, fired with the intent to kill an innocent girl, in broad daylight. What was he trading that was worth losing everything he had?

Judith stirred and winced slightly before her breathing evened out again. All four brothers turned to look at her, their concern obvious.

It seemed ridiculously easy to care about this girl despite not knowing her identity or intent.

Maybe it was because they had saved her life.

None of the boys had ever really seen a human die, really watched it happen. On the battlefield, things moved too quickly for you to asses who was dead or not. They'd never had an young, bloodied woman sprawled on their table about to die before.

They'd never had to stitch a complete stranger up, clean her blood off their hands. It had been ridiculously easy to hush her fears and tell her it would be alright.

To promise her safety.

"She can't go back up top for a while" Leo said pacing the length of the table. He had obviously been thinking along the same lines Donnie was. "Whatever Hun was trading, he'd kill to keep anyone from knowing about it. He'll probably hunt her down until she's either dead or he's convinced she won't talk"

Raph nodded, having leaned himself against the wall of the lair nearby.

"She'll stay here a while" He declared, eyeing his other brothers for any protests. No one gave any. In fact, Mickey smiled and nodded a little eagerly.

"She can stay in my room. I'll get it ready" He said simply, ignoring the raised eye-ridges that shot up around him and heading for the door.

"Or…" Leo grabbed Mikey before he got anywhere "She could stay in my room, it's less like a bomb site, there more space and it's the only room in the lair with a door. I don't mind sleeping in the dojo"

Mikey rolled his eyes but said nothing in his defence. Donnie supposed this was because Mikey didn't want to clean his room.

"Raph?" Leo continued, patting Mikey on the back "Can you please get the room ready? Mikey, help Donnie clean up. I'm going to try and contact Master Splinter"

Donnie winced. He had almost forgotten about Master Splinter. How were they going to explain this?

* * *

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Raph closed his eyes and took a long breath, tucking in the fresh sheets and blankets on Leo's bed. He didn't know what to make of the day he had just had, and he had no idea what to expect from the rest of the night. If Master Splinter disapproved of their new houseguest what would they do? Raph was pretty sure their Sensei wouldn't allow his moral compass to go out the window on this one, but he was preparing an argument anyway.

Just on the off chance he was wrong.

Raph had always been good at arguing and the girl, Judith, deserved that much for her suffering. She deserved someone to argue for her.

He drew another long breath. He wasn't in the business of feeling guilty about much. In fact he couldn't remember the last time he had felt honest to shell guilty about something.

But he was feeling pretty damn shit about what he'd said to Judith.

Because he had screwed up, and he could admit it this time. The look she had given him when he had said she was high was horrifying. While Raph was a self-proclaimed hard arse he like to think he wasn't essentially a bad person. Seeing that girl, who was giggling like a child one minute, and then pleading for her life the next made his conscience do a few round house kicks to his face.

Having finished with the bed Raph tromped out to the two turtle brothers still scrubbing the 'operation' area with bleach. Donnie was nowhere to be seen and Raph could only assume he was trying to fix a few broken anklebones. Actually, was there more than one anklebone? How many bones were in a human ankle anyway?

Leo looked up from his position on the floor as Raph approached.

"Raph, can you go scrub the back of the slider?"

Raph grunted in response to Leo's request and snatched a bottle of bleach from the coffee table. Leo's voice was grating him more than usual tonight. Maybe it was the smell of all the blood, of the after effects of the alcohol he'd had at Casey's.

Seeing no free scrubbing brushes, Raph's eyes locked on Mikey's working hands and he cleared his throat expectantly. Mikey, half way through working out a rather stubborn blood spot, noticed Raph's interest and narrowed his eyes at his older brother, knowing exactly where this was going.

Raph glared, Mikey glared back, Raph glared some more and took a menacing step forward, Mikey's eyes got a little bigger and his knuckles began to go a pale green as they tightened around the scrubbing brush.

Leo, quietly watching this exchange from the sidelines, sighed. Sensing this was about to turn into a full-blown brawl over the cleaning utensil, he stood just as Raph was about to raise a fist and shoved his own scrubbing brush into his brothers quickly tensing hands.

Mikey threw a quick half-smile at Leo and went back to work. Raph glared at the scrubbing brush and then at Leo.

"You get hold of Masta Splinter then?" He finally asked, his teeth clenched just enough to make his voice sound strained.

Raph needed to punch something. Preferably a moving, squirming target who wore an orange bandanna and called himself Michelangelo, and Leo had just single-handedly managed to ruin his chances of socking said target in the gut.

Not hard, of course. He wasn't aiming to hurt Mikey.

"Yes…he's coming home now. He asked me to brew some tea for the girl."

Raph felt his left eye twitch and rubbed it in an attempt to hide the movement. Well at least that meant Master Splinter wasn't going to throw the girl out straight away.

"She's got a name ya know Leo. Judith, and I don't think tea's gonna fix any of the shit she's gone through. I would suggest a couple shots of something that burns on the way down."

"I agree"

Leo and Raph looked down at Mikey, slightly shocked at his declaration. He had finished with the blood spot and had moved onto the blood puddle next to it, eyes still glued to the floor. "And I want one too, to get this smell out of my mouth" He continued, not noticing his brothers odd looks.

There was a long stint of silence as Raph and Leo continued to stare down at their brother.

"Mikey, you can't get a smell in your mouth" Raph finally burst out. Mikey paused again in his work and sighed.

"I'm sorry Raph, are you down here on your hands and knees with the blood and the bleach? No, you're not, and I'm telling you, I have a _bad smell_ in my _mouth_."

Raph glared at his little brother, baring his teeth. "You, Mikey, are a royal pain in my a…"

"Just go clean the slider Raph" Leo cut him off with a sigh, shaking his head.

Raph narrowed his eyes at Leo and with one sharp, quick movement, smacked his brother in the arm as hard as he could. Leo gave a very uncharacteristic little yelp and Raph suddenly felt a little better. Well, felt a little more motivated to do as he was told.

So he left quickly, before Leo could launch into a lecture.

When Raph rounded the corner to the slider all he could do was wince as the smell radiating from the back plate. The metal was visibly dotted with red.

Sneering, Raph emptied the whole bottle of bleach onto the plate in one go and started scrubbing, trying his best to keep himself at least a little bit elevated from the blood smeared metal around him. It took him a second to realise with displeasure that Mikey had been right, you could indeed have a really bad smell in your mouth.

Why did people have such thin skin? Why did they bleed so much?

Raph didn't like blood. You would think he would have managed to get used to with his almost every day exposure, but he just couldn't get over the hot, metallic smell that burned his nostrils and throat.

Slowly, with a lot of effort and a bucket of clean water from the kitchen, the slider started looking less like a kill zone. Raph began moving his way to the back end of the tray, shifting away the coils of rope and boxes of tools to make sure there wasn't any blood under them. He was just about to clear away the last coil of rope in the back corner of the slider, half way through a sigh of gratitude that this was nearly over when suddenly his heart was racing and he was in a defensive pose, his feet planted in the still slightly wet tray.

Something was beeping and…vibrating? Raph squinted, taking a step back towards the last coil of rope.

There, hiding behind a spanner at the very back of the slider, lodged in a rusted gap in the tray, was a black Iphone, vibrating urgently against the metal.

"Well…Shit." Raph muttered, leaning forward a little bit more and staring curiously at the phone. How in hells name had that thing survived? It was all scratched up, and its screen had a long crooked crack running the length of it, but it still seemed to be working just fine.

How long had it been there? Who's was it?

Then it hit him, it was obvious. It was Judith's phone. She had said something about it a little when she had first woken up, about how she had been recording a message. Reaching forward, Raph cautiously picked it up. It didn't explode in his hand, which was a good sign. But it did continue to vibrate and beep like it was having a seizure.

"Ah…Leo?" There was no response and Raph backed out of the tray and jumped down out of the slider, still cradling the mobile in his hand. Walking around into the main hall of the lair Raph glanced around and found his brothers suspiciously absent.

"Leo? Mikey?" Raph called out again after a moment, his voice echoing against the brick. He was mildly surprised when Donnie was the first to emerge. Not surprised that it was Donnie, surprised that Donnie looked pissed.

"Keep your voice down Raph, you'll wake…what's that?" Donnie cut himself off and his expression changed to one of curiosity as he made his way over to Raph and stared down at the mobile.

"I think I may have found something useful." Raph answered simply, passing the Iphone to his brother. It stopped ringing as soon as it touched Donnie's hands and beeped with a message letting them know they had missed a call.

Donnie 'hmmed' and turned the phone over in his hands, eyeing it suspiciously.

"I'll have to check to see if it's bugged, or if there's anything on it that can be used to track us." He handed it back to Raphe and shook his head "I'll do it in a minute. Gotta move Judith first, have you finished making the bed?" Raph nodded and accepted the phone back, looking it over to find the off button.

"Yeah, the doors open and the sheets are turned down. Shouldn't have a problem." Donnie's lips twitched into a smile as his brother fumbled with the little black phone in his hands, obviously not sure how it worked. They'd never bothered with store bought phones, they were too traceable, to breakable. And why bother when your brother made them better out of scrap metal and wires?

"Leo and I will sort Judith our then deal with the phone." Don disappeared back into the lab, only to reappear moments later with Leo in tow, Judith suspended on the stretcher between them as they headed for the upper level of the lair. Raph noted that she was newly dressed in one of Mikey's limited edition T-shirts and couldn't help the little smirk. Who would have thought those damn things would end up being useful for something?

Sighing, Raph wandered his way to the lounge room, setting the phone down on the coffee table and slumping down on the couch. He'd just gotten comfortable when Leo arrived back and took a seat next to him.

"Don's doing a final check" He said simply to Raph's glance up to Leo's room. "Making sure she's stable enough to leave for a while."

Raph nodded and they fell into a silence that was broken when Leo's eyes landed on the phone on the coffee table.

"Whats that?" He asked, pointing at the little ting.

Raph shrugged. "It's Judith's. Waitin' on Don to pick it apart."

Leo frowned as Mikey appeared behind them, vaulting the couch and grabbing the little black thing from the table. As soon as his fingers touched the phone it started vibrating urgently again, humming its little tune in excitement at another call. Everyone jumped and Mikey stared at it for a moment before pressing the little green button and bringing the phone to his ear.

"Yello?"

Leo looked on in mortification at his younger brother, who was listening intently into the phones speaker. "Mikey!" He hissed, reaching out to grab him. "Hang up! Hang the hell up!"

Mikey scooted away to the other side of the coffee table and frowned at his brother, shaking his head as he took the phone a little way from his ear, pressing a button on the keypad.

"Hello? Who is this?"

Leo's jaw dropped as a soft female voice drummed out on speaker phone.

"A friend of Judith's...Who's this?" Mikey asked calmly, ignoring Leo's disbelieving stare. Raphes eyes bulged.

"Judith made a friend? Well shit, that's awesome. Anyway, strange person with her phone, I want to talk to her." The female voice on the other end sounded somewhere between excited and suspicious. Mikey paused for a moment and looked around the lair, trying to think of what normal young women would be doing at this time of day.

"Um, she's in the shower right now, can I take a message?"

Leo choked and finally rocketed out of his shocked state, launching forward and attempting to grab the phone. There was one thing and one thing alone that Mikey consistently had up on his brothers.

He was faster. Possibly the fastest of them all if he was really trying, and at the moment he was really trying.

Mikey dodged Leo effortlessly, sidestepping him and making it to the other side of the lair in record time.

Now it was Raphs turn to work his way out of his stock still shock state. Raph however took a slightly different approach to Leo.

"Mikey, bro, I swear to god if ya don't hand me that phone right now, I'm gonna kick your ass so hard you won't be able to skate for a month!" His yelled statement echoed through the lair as he advanced on his charming little brother.

Mikey gulped.

"Who's that?" The voice on the other end of the phone was sounding a little worried now, and Mikey diverted his attention to it.

"No one important" He answered just as Raph lunged, catching him by surprise and wrestling the phone out of his hands.

Raphmanaged to hold his little brother at bay and press the phone too his ear in time to hear the woman on the other end rattling off a message for Judith.

"Tell her Dia called, and I'm so stoked she's making friends but to call me back ASAP because I want to know all about it. Ok?"

"Ok" Raph responded quickly. Then, not waiting for a response, Raph hung up and finally managed to turn the phone off, pitching it at the couch, where it landed with a slight bounce and stilled innocently.

"Ok, Judith's out for the count. We'll have to take shifts checking on her. She's probably going to be in a lot of pain, so we'll have to be extremely careful if she wakes up…" Donnie entered the scene just as Raph was raising his fist again to take another swing at a still winded Mikey. "What happened?"

"This…this…stupid! Stupid!" Raph couldn't even get the words out, they all sort of jumbled together into a long infuriated roll of angry as he set about restraining his younger brother to be dealt with. To his credit Leo looked less like he was going to kill his brother and more like he was going to explode and take the whole city block with him.

"The phone rang. Mikey answered it." It came out through Leo's gritted teeth and Mikey yelped as Raph took that poised swing and clocked him in the shoulder.

"Jeeze dudes. Chill will you? It was a girl named Dia, I thought if it was someone checking up on her I could give the all clear and they wouldn't be worried you know?"

Leo made a 'gwaphing' noise in disbelief at his brother. It was a show of how big of a deal it was that Leo had even made that sound so he didn't feel the need to continue with a reasoned argument as to why Michelangelo had done something wrong.

Donnie said nothing, and gave all three of his brothers the 'look'.

The 'look' was something Donnie had adopted during his stint as family head when Leo had been away. It wasn't used often and was a quick silencer for every argument because when Donnie gave you the 'look' you better pray it wasn't going to end with the whole damn lair being shut down at his say so. When you argued with the brother who controlled your transport, your power, you access to money and your food source, well, you were going to lose.

"Leo, please make some tea like Master Splinter asked. Raph, stop beating Mikey. Mikey…that was stupid, but I understand where you're coming from. Just don't do it again" Although when Mikey would have a chance to replicate this situation Don didn't know, but it needed to be set down as a rule anyway.

"We've all had a tough couple of hours, let's not start fighting each other now ok? We have to try and stay calm enough to figure this out." He said as calmly as he could, sighing and rubbing his eyes.

The situation diffused quickly from there. Raph backed off, not because he had been told to but because his purple bro looked tired and the noise of Mikey squealing might wake Judith. Leo went to do as Master Splinter had asked and Mikey looked suitably abashed.

"Sorry Don" He muttered, chewing the inside of his cheek.

Donnie just waved his hand at Mikey and shrugged.

"Let's hope it's not going to become a problem. Just, can you go sit with Judith for now and try to be…calm?"

Raph snorted. Mikey glared at him, but took the task to heart and headed off towards Leo's bedroom without another word.

"Got anythin' ya need done from me? You know. For her?" Raph asked after a moment of silence. Donnie shook his head and walked to the couch to retrieve the phone.

"Not right now. We need to re-stock on first aid supplies. But I don't know how long Master Splinter is going to take to get back and we should all be here when he arrives. Maybe you could call Casey and April and get them to bring some clothes down for her? Mikey was willing to give up one of his collectors shirts but I don't know how happy she'll be with just a shirt when she wakes up."

 _Don't know how happy she'll be in general_ \- was the unspoken meaning behind that statement.

Raph nodded and headed to the pay phone they kept for outgoing calls, it would probably be worth having April around when Judith woke up anyway. Human faces were easier to handle and there was still a chance she might not remember any of them.

Donnie watched his brother go, standing still for a moment to take a breath, let his brain settle and catch up before he headed back to his lab, phone in hand. Considering the amount of amazing technical feats he had pulled off in his life time, sorting out this little black object wasn't going to take much, but for some reason he had a sense of foreboding as he stared down at the cracked screen.

The first thing he did was plug it into his computer, disable the GPS tracking, trace the call Mikey had answered and scan through the scant files and details programmed into it. It was amazing how much you could learn about someone from their phone.

The call had come from Australia. It would have cost a fortune but someone had been willing to do it twice. Other than that there weren't any other phone calls outgoing or incoming. There were a few texts that hadn't been sent due to a communication error that explained the lack of calls, and a few photos of an un-bruised Judith standing in an airport with a woman who looked like an older version of her, a portly man who must have been in his 50's and two younger boys. Don assumed that was her family.

She had a family…

She could have died in the sewers and her family wouldn't have ever known why.

Donnie winced and shoved that thought away, checking if she'd tried to log into anything even with no signal. He hit the jackpot with Facebook. God how Donnie loved Facebook. He knew more about their enemies from that one site than any information gathering service he could ever employ.

Judith had tried to log into Facebook using the app on her phone and made the mistake of allowing the damn thing to remember her log in details. He was staring at her life in seconds.

She was an Australian. She'd only just gotten here several weeks ago. She didn't know anyone. She was missing her family and friends and a dog named Ketchup. She liked classical music, was a professional dancer and had studied at a school that Donnie could only assume was for the fine arts and performance. She was allergic to shellfish, liked the colour green and had ended a relationship six months ago with a man who everyone on her page referred to as 'That asshole'.

On top of that the woman named Dia was on Judith's friends list and the two of them had masses of archived conversations so Donnie relaxed about the possibility of the call coming from someone tracking their new house guest.

Donnie scanned her info quickly and didn't come up with anything suspicious, but just to be safe hacked his way into a few different government systems and ran her name, with both her current address and her Australian details. He also did his best to track down any of her medical files while he was at it. If the wound on her side re-opened they may need a blood transfusion and it wouldn't hurt to know if shellfish was her only allergy. While those search engines worked through the vast array of databases Donnie went back to looking through her phone files.

There was three video files. One demonstration on the features of the phone, one pretty video to show the beauty of the high-def screen and one that started with her smiling at the camera. Donnie double clicked on that one and sat back in his chair.

"Hi lovely people. So I thought I might show you the little park near my apartment. If you're seeing it now it's because I figured out what was wrong with my phone here and I got reception." Judith poked her tongue out at the camera and Donnie recognised that this was the film she was talking about when she had woken up.

He hit pause and sat very still. The film showed it was over 15 minutes long. It started in the park and would no doubt end somewhere in the sewers.

Donnie steeled himself and pressed play.

What followed was 13 minutes of the closest thing to true horror Donnie had ever experienced. Judith had gotten the Purple Dragons trade on film, then put the phone in her pocket without stopping the recording. But just because there wasn't an image didn't mean there wasn't any sound. Donnie wasn't surprised he felt a little sick at the end of it after the huge crunch that must have been her falling to the sewer floor before it all went quiet and the film cut off.

Again he sat very still for a minute before he slowly raised himself from his chair and went to find his brothers. The feeling of foreboding had been accurate.

It had been Hun at the trade as they had suspected from her story. He had personally shown up to do the trade and failed in killing the one witness who could topple his empire if she spoke up. Hun had gotten a good look at Judith and no doubt so had several of his lackeys, which meant they would all know who to look for by morning. If the trade was important enough to kill for they wouldn't stop until she was found.

If she headed back topside, if she was spotted by anyone on the Purple Dragon payroll, she was a dead woman.

Donnie knew what that meant and racked his brain for a different solution. He couldn't, right at that moment, find one. They couldn't take her to a hospital, in her state she would be easy pray and the Purple Dragons would search the hospitals regularly for anyone matching her description coming in wounded. They couldn't put her on a flight home in the condition she was in, and he wasn't sure how desperate Hun would be to follow her out of the country. She couldn't go to the cops, Hun had plenty of contacts within the police who would be more than happy to slip in a quiet word to him when she showed up, and if it was easy for Donnie to get a hold of information about people in witness protection (and it was) there was no doubt someone with Huns current reach wouldn't have a problem either.

This would have to blow over first, she would have to heal.

Judith was going to have to stay.


	4. Chapter 4

April was drinking wine. It had been a hard day and she was worried, and when she was worried she tended to have a glass of wine to calm her nerves.

As far as she had known when she had left for work everything was fine. Raph was going to come over and hang out with Casey for a while, they were going to have a few beers and if Raph was convincing enough the two of them would go out looking for some trouble.

April didn't like that bit but Casey thought she didn't know and that was fine by her. Partly because she knew Casey could look after himself, partly because Raph was with him and despite his temper he would keep Casey safe and partly because she liked watching him squirm when he was caught out and had to tell her about his jaunts into the big wide world of street combat.

There was also the fact that she knew she would never be able to stop him. The argument to try and make him quit would be never ending and leave him with a hole in his life she wasn't sure would be easily healed. Despite herself she loved him too much for that.

But back to the glass of wine. It was half way done now and she was indeed feeling a little better, still worried, but better. When she had gotten home Casey had told her about Raph's sudden departure. He'd gotten a call from his brother and had left without much of an explanation, looking grim. None of them had done anything like that for a long time. Not since Winters tower.

So what new threat had arisen? What fresh batch of bastards were trying to hurt her friends now?

Casey was doing his best to calm her down, rubbing her shoulders and insisting it was all fine, that Mikey had probably just messed something up in Donnie's lab again and everyone was annoyed about it. But April wasn't convinced. It had been too quiet lately, what with the Foot on the downward spiral to nothingness and the Purple Dragons buying up everything they could.

Maybe she was just being paranoid.

"I'm telling ya babe, stop stressing! Its totally cool. You know the guys can handle whatever the problem is, if it's a problem at all. We don't know anythin's even wrong!" Casey smiled and patted the couch next to him, shuffling back to allow room for her. April nodded after a second and joined him with a slight sigh.

"You're right. I'm just overreacting. Its work, after the Winters fiasco everyone is desperate to get their hands on his finances and we're getting dragged into it waiting for his payment to clear. I just don't like dealing with lawyers to get paid. Plus I'm waiting for the shoe to drop for the boys and some new…bad thing…to come creeping out of the woodwork"

"Ya don't know for sure some 'bad thing' will come up." Casey chuckled and wrapped his arms around her.

April snorted and took another sip of her wine.

"When has it ever  _not_? Those boys are like trouble magnets, anything even slightly out of the ordinary or dangerous finds them like…like…" April made a whistling noise and mimed a bomb going off when she couldn't find the words.

Casey laughed.

April went to ask if he thought any differently but was cut short when the home phone rang. She sighed again, pecked Casey on the lips and stood to answer it, setting her wine down on the table as she went.

"Hello?"

Casey got up from the couch to wander into the kitchen and April heard the fridge door open, followed by the clank of a beer bottle being withdrawn. She smiled, pressing the phone to her ear.

"Hey April, s'Raph" Raphaels voice was unmistakable, he had a gravely tone that wasn't particularly normal and seemed to come from deeper in his chest than any of his brothers. April noticed it more because of his accent though. When she had first met the turtle boys she had been fascinated as to how a single brother, who had been raised the same as the other three, could sound so different in every way.

"Oh, hey!" She waved at Casey as he re-entered the room and pointed at the phone, miming 'Its Raph' a little too dramatically. "Hang on, I'm going to put you on speaker" She pushed the little button on the phone and set it back on the hook "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. Loud and clear."

April retrieved her wine and had another few sips as Casey took over the conversation.

"So what happened today bro? Got me a little worried when you left like that"

Ah-huh! So he had been worried. April made a face at him and Casey shrugged innocently, popping the top off his beer. Raph was his best mate, what sort of friend would he be if he wasn't just the slightest tad bit worried?

"Mikey found a girl in the sewers all shot up and broken. I hadta get an IV. S'why I'm callin' actually." He paused just long enough for the information to sink in before continuing. "April, ya still got that bag o' clothes by ya door ya keep meanin' to donate?"

April blinked, a little stunned by this new development but recovered quickly and managed to respond.

"Ah, yeah, yeah I do" The bag of clothes had been there for weeks now, she had been motivated to clear out her closet and had yet to be motivated enough to move the clothes out of the house. "Wait wait Raph, back up. Did you just say Mikey found a  _girl?_  In the  _sewers?_  Is she Foot? PD?"

"Nah, not as far as Donnie can see she ain't. She saw a trade go bad and ran for it. Got chased and ended up in the sewers to get away. Donnie recon's she'll live. Anyway, the clothes. Mind bringin' a few down here when ya have a chance? All her stuff has been torn up pretty bad and we ain't got nothin' to fit her."

April stared at the phone.

"Yeah, of course, I can drop them to you tomorrow before work. So she's just some girl? That's horrible! How badly is she hurt?" There was a pause on the other end of the line as Raph seemed to consider how to answer that before he spoke.

"Bad" That was it, one word and it told both Casey and April everything they needed to know.

"That's terrible dude. Got any idea who did it?" Casey grunted out the question, putting a comforting hand on Aprils shoulder.

Raph made an odd whistling noise through what April imagined was gritted teeth and his voice took on a harder edge.

"Fukin' Purple Dragons. They…hang on, hang on." The phone muffled as Raph pulled it away from his ear to deal with whatever mysterious event was happening in the lair before he came back on the line "Look, I gotta go. Masta Splinters back and we gotta walk him through what happened. Bring the clothes round in the mornin' yeah? We'll talk more then."

Then he hung up without saying goodbye.

There was a long pause as April and Casey processed what they'd just been told before April sighed loudly. She finished her wine and pressed the disconnect button on the phone.

"Well. I guess that's not the worst news we've ever had from them. Certainly not the best, but we've had world disasters before" She said finally after another moment's pause. Casey nodded from beside her.

"True that. It coulda been worse I suppose. Don't know what to think about the PD attackin' people in the street, but at least she's safe with the boys for now."

April mimicked his nod and set down her glass.

"Yeah. Though she's probably terrified if she was anything like me when I first met them. She might not be feeling so safe"

Casey 'hmmm'ed and sat back down on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table.

"Maybe it would be best if ya hung around there tomorrow you know? So she can see a pretty face instead of Raphs ugly mug first thing?"

April had crossed the room and was busy digging through the clothes next to the door to find something suitably comfortable for an injured woman or unknown size and shape to wear while re-cooping.

She was surprised how upset she was about what Raph had said. It wasn't obvious but she had known him long enough to pick up when he was stressed about something as opposed to just angry, and this whole thing had him twitching by the sounds. If he was that tied in knots about this there had to be a lot more to the story that he hadn't told them, and April didn't like the idea of Purple Dragons heading back to their old street thug roots.

Especially if it meant it endangered the lives of innocent people and making the situation bad enough that the boys felt the need to handle the situation themselves instead of discreetly dropping the girl at a hospital.

"Maybe. I'll have to ask them tomorrow if they want me around. You're coming along too right?" She set aside some old sweat pants and some baggy t-shirts from the pile and looked up at her fiancé as he sipped his beer.

"Yeah, fo' sure. If the Dragons are hurtin' innocent girls I think it's time I put a little beat on them" Casey responded firmly with his brow furrowed. He was serious about doing some baseball bat swinging.

For once April didn't think that was so bad of an idea.

* * *

Donatello had gone over the video more times than he would have ever liked too after all his brothers had seen it and left him to his work.

He had split it up into vocals, picture and ambient background noises. Using these different noise signatures, along with the starting location and final destination where Judith ended up Donnie had managed to estimate the path Judith had taken before she had fallen into the sewers. He had tried to do the same thing using the GPS in the phone, but for some reason it hadn't been activated during the attack and he couldn't trace the phones movements before it buzzed into existence on the ride back to the lair in the sewer slider.

Which would have been suspicious, if he hadn't also seen and listened to the huge log of files with Judith trying to convince the phone company she had signed up too that something was wrong with her phone.

As far as Donnie could track, Judith had run panicked from the park he had placed just near her listed address, which correlated with her story. She had run into the back streets and must have gotten lost or disorientated because she had missed several alleys that lead straight onto more major street fronts. When she had eventually gone towards a more populated area she had been jumped again by Purple Dragons and turned back into the rabbit warren. He couldn't imagine how scared and cornered she must have been to think hauling herself into the sewers was her best escape.

Combining that information with the visuals on the tape Don could quite happily confirm Judith was being 100% honest with all of them. Which was a relief. He could say to Master Splinter with absolute certainty that Judith wasn't a threat. He knew in the back of his mind Master Splinter would probably just take his word for it, but he had always been one to gather more proof than needed.

He leant back in his chair and looked up to the top right hand screen of his set up. One of his search engines was beeping urgently to inform him it had finished it requested data search. Donnie clicked on it and scanned over the files containing records of Judith's life.

Which…wasn't a lot.

She had had two speeding tickets, her financial records were pretty standard for a single working woman. All of her Australian paperwork seemed to be in perfect order, he had record of her birth certificate and her medical records showed she was up to date with all her vaccinations. She was here on a green card lottery win, and as far as Donnie could tell with the piles and piles of files sighed and dated everything was in order there too.

Judith was about as damn close to normal as it got. Which made this whole thing even more depressing. From normal to shell shocked in one life threatening chase through New York. Great. Just great.

Don rubbed his eyes and checked over his other screens. He was running a facial recognition scan on the man Hun had killed in the park when the trade had gone bad but so far he hadn't turned anything up. It didn't surprise him. The film wasn't the best quality and he didn't have any vocals of the mystery man to help the process along. He also couldn't figure out what they were trading. Initially it looked a lot like a package of explosives, but with a few nifty programs of his own design Don had managed to figure out it was a wrapped cylinder of some kind. Of what kind he had no idea.

He leant back in his chair and sighed, staring at the ceiling for a moment and trying to figure out a course of action. He got nothing, and was about to throw himself back into his searches when Leo's head appeared in his peripheral vision and his older brother entered his lab.

"Master Splinter is back, he wants to see us all in the Dojo" He said simply, hands on hips and eyes slightly downcast. Don's heartbeat picked up and he let out a shaky breath.

"Ok" The two brothers looked at each other for a long beat before Don stood and followed Leo out of his lab, making a beeline for the dojo on the other side of the lair.

"Mikey and Raph are already in there." Leo warned before they walked through the two huge sliding doors. Don just nodded.

Inside the Dojo Mikey and Raph were kneeling in their customary positions in front of Master Splinter, who was seated before them looking meditative. Don and Leo walked forward quickly and took their places in the line up, bowing before kneeling like their other brothers.

There was silence. Raph started twitching.

More silence. Mikey was glancing at his brothers in what he probably thought was a conspiratorial fashion but was in fact more obvious than the tension building in the room.

Leo took a breath through his nose, released it through his mouth, raised his head and started to speak out.

"Master Splin…" He didn't even get through their fathers respectful title before the cacophony raised itself up and the other three turtles all cut him off at once in what came out as an almost indistinguishable mash of sentences.

Master Splinter held up a hand and everyone once again fell silent, dropping back into their proper positions.

"What is her name?" He asked after a moment. The brothers glanced at each other and Leo took the initiative.

"Her name is Judith Carter Master." He started formally "Mickey found her when he went out today"

"In the far east tunnel close to the old Lair." Mikey interjected, leaning forward with the force of the words. Don picked it up from there and rushed to explain his part.

"She was shot, it was bad Sensei. She wouldn't have made it to a hospital in time. I thought we could fix the worst of it and take her to a hospital when she was stabilised…"

"But then she woke up, kinda, Don used too much morphine." Raph interrupted. Don winced here but didn't say anything or stop Raph from continuing. "Told us this story about Hun and the Purple Dragons chasin' her. She was really scared Masta Splinta"

All the brothers nodded in agreement to what Raphael had said.

"Then we found her phone, and it has a video of what happened, and we realised if Hun had gotten a good look at her she would be in real danger topside" Leo spoke up again. The conversation was getting rushed now, each brother piling on more facts when there was a moment of silence.

"All of her information checks out, I've looked through everything I could find and she's not a threat to us." Donatello assured his Master. "She needed our help."

"If Hun was willin' ta risk his new power cause o' whatever he was tradin' he's gonna come afta her if he thinks she's gonna talk" Raphael was leaning forward now, they all were, eyes fixed on their father.

"Hun's been that determined before, and he knows she's hurt. If we take her to a hospital now there are bound to be PD's staking the place out to see if she shows up." It was Leonardo who finished the rush of words from the four turtle brothers and they fell back into silence, waiting for their father to respond.

Master Splinter closed his eyes slowly and 'hmmmed', hands closing around the walking stick sitting across his knees. There was more silence as their Master meditated on what he had just been told before his eyes opened and he looked over his sons.

"You have shown great compassion my sons. I am very proud of you all." He said softly. There was a collective expulsion of held breaths as the turtles relaxed back on their heels, smiles appearing on their faces. Master Splinter's whiskers twitched, he wasn't finished. "However, are her injuries manageable? Are you positive she will not suffer without proper medical attention?"

The brothers stilled and Donatello cleared his throat.

"I believe we are able to supply the needed medical aid. She has stabilised now and is resting in Leonardo's room" Master Splinter frowned at Donatello's words and looked over his boys.

"How do you know she is well if there is no one with her?"

The Dojo went deathly still before Michelangelo made a high pitched 'eep' noise. Master Splinter sighed and stood, scratching a spot behind his ear as he tapped his walking stick against the Dojo floor.

"If Miss Carter is to stay we must be as diligent as possible. We must also allow her to be comfortable. If her injuries are as severe as you say she will be fragile until her spirit has healed. It would be wise not to reveal ourselves again to her until she is more recovered" He nodded to himself and the turtles stood and bowed, agreeing with their father with a chorus of 'Yes Master Splinter'.

Mikey was itching to be dismissed and check on Judith but year of training stopped him for leaving without his Masters permission. Master Splinter noticed this and couldn't help the small smile that inched onto his face.

"Michelangelo. Please go and check on out new guest" No sooner had Master Splinter spoken those words, Mikey was out of the Dojo. If it had been a cartoon there would have been a Mikey shaped cloud of dust left in his wake. Master Splinter turned his attention back to his remaining sons with a slight shake of his head. "Perhaps you should request and extended visit from Miss O'Neil?" He suggested, looking to Raphael when the red turtle stepped forward.

"I've already called Casey 'n April. They're comin' round tomorrow ta bring her some clothes. I'll ask her then."

Master Splinter nodded and tapped his walking stick again, posing another question.

"Will she remain asleep until Miss O'Neil arrives?"

"Yes" Donatello offered quickly "The medication I've used should keep her asleep for quite a while Sensei. At least the next six to eight hours." Don knew how long she would be out this time. He'd checked his calculations five times before he'd given her anything else.

"Very well. Then I believe I would be best for me to see this young woman you have saved my sons. Let us go and check on her…and you're brother." Master Splinter walked calmly to the exit of the Dojo, sliding the door open and stepping through into the lair. "Then I think perhaps I will have a nice cup of tea."

* * *

Casey pulled the van into the abandoned warehouse above the turtles lair and cut the engine, pausing for a moment to pull out his cell phone and dial Raphs number.

April hopped out of the car, hearing Casey tell Raph they were upstairs as she fetched the bag of clothes from the back of the van. There was a rumble from somewhere beneath them and the ground began to shake, signalling the elevator was being sent up to fetch them.

It took a moment, but the huge strangely decorated dome rose out of the floor of the warehouse and the door hissed down and open, allowing Casey and April to step inside.

"You know, I've been friends wit da guys for years now and I don't know if I'll evera get used to this…thing. I keep expectin' it to stop somewhere in the ground or suddenly start glowin' and turn us into monsters or somethin'" April laughed as the elevator rumbled and began its decent into the lair.

"I know, but it's certainly better than trudging through the sewer" She didn't go into details about being stuck in it, she didn't want to think about it too much.

The 'elevator' (a word which had been picked to describe it because nothing else really fit) was a large rounded room that the boys had discovered when they had moved into their current lair after Baxter Stockmans mousers chewed through their previous home. It was alien, something long ago forgotten and left hidden until Mikey had tried to put up a 'Sewer Sweet Sewer' sign and managed to destroy the brick wall built over its entrance.

It ran directly up from the lair to street level, opening in an abandoned warehouse on the corner of Eastman and Laird downtown and despite their grievances about its origins April was exceptionally glad she didn't need to walk into a sewer to visit her friends.

The elevator slowed and hummed to a stop, opening again so its passengers could disembark into the familiar Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lair. Aka, Home.

The lair was strangely silent, eerily so for the home that housed four rumbustious brothers and their ever-patient father. April was used to having her ears assaulted as soon as she walked through the 'front' door, so entering to find the place completely silent was like walking into the beginnings of a horror movie.

"Hello? Guys?" Casey called out over the din, frowning as his voice echoed over the concrete walls. For a moment there was no response and Casey was winding up to out yell himself, before he was cut short with a smack to the back of the head.

"Keep it down bone head. Whadid I tell ya?"

Casey winced and glared at Raph, who rolled his eyes and dropped his hands to his hips. Casey went to say something but stopped short when Raph gave him a look he usually reserved for the bad guys.

"Sorry man. How's the girl?"

Raph's jaw tightened and he scowled a little.

"Yeah, she's…whats the word Don used? 'stable', but other than that its bad news, we figured out what happened from the vid she got on her phone. It was bad." His eyes narrowed and he rubbed at his jaw. "Purple Dragons for sure. And her names Judith. Just so's ya know"

"So. What actually happened? To…to Judith?" April asked, stepping closer to Casey unconsciously and linking her arm through his.

Raph gave a non-committal shrug at Aprils question and started walking towards the kitchen, gesturing for the new arrivals to follow.

"She saw a trade go down, and Hun…"

"Hun? As in mountai' of man Hun? He ain't been on the streets for months!" Casey cut Raph off before he could finish his sentence, shoulders squaring up.

Raph huffed and tossed Casey another look.

"Yeah Case, that Hun. We dunno  _why_  he was there, but we figure it musta been important. Don's still pourin' over the vid. You want coffee?" Having made it to the kitchen Raph poured himself a mug of black coffee and leant against the counter, holding out the still half full jug out to April and Casey.

"No thanks." April said quietly, dropping the bag of clothes onto the table as Casey passed her to fetch himself a mug and partake in the Black Death the Turtles liked to call 'coffee'. That explained why she, Judith, wasn't in a hospital. If Hun was involved she was in some serious trouble. "Where is everyone?"

"Don's in his lab, Leo's on watch for Judith, only just managed to convince Mikey to get to bed and Masta Splita's meditating." Raph took a long sip of his coffee and shrugged. "I've just gotten back from a pharmacy run. They're missing a bit o' stock from the back room but I left cash ta cover it." He smirked "Got ninja bout it."

Casey gave him a high five over his coffee mug and the two shared a smile before Raph's face fell a little.

"So…ah. April, I kinda got a fava ta ask." Raph rubbed his neck and stared into his coffee as April took a seat at the table and 'hmmmed'. "Me and the guys, and Masta Splinta, kinda figured it would be better if Judith woke up to a friendly face ya know?" Raph looked up after a moment's pause, taking another sip of coffee. "A friendly…human face. Casey here can't do it cause she's prolly gonna see him as a PD or somethin'"

Casey made a noise of protest, but Raph shut him down.

"Come on man, you know we're buds, but ya look like a street thug and she ain't gonna see the difference"

April nodded.

"He's right Casey. If she's already scared and confused, it might be easier for her to cope if it's a friendly face she wakes up too."

"Babe, you sayin' this face ain't friendly?" Casey pointed to himself and tried to look hurt. He failed and April responded with a snort and a shake of her head.

"To a young girl who's just been attacked? Not really honey." She smiled a little and tilted her head, resting her chin on her hand "But you're still a very friendly face to me"

Casey just blushed in response. Raph made a disgusted noise. All three fell into silence until Raph cleared his throat.

"So. Ah. Do ya think ya can take some time off April? Just ta sit with Judith till she comes too? 'Splain things till she's…calm bout it?"

April stared down at her hands for a moment before sighing and pushing her hair out of her eyes.

"Sure, if I can help I will. I don't have a lot of jobs pending I can't take care of over the phone and Casey can watch the shop for a while. I'll do what I can."

Casey seemed to want to object but glanced at the other two occupants of the room and took a long gulp of his coffee instead. He wasn't that keen on 'looking after the shop', but he'd had to do it more and more while April was away antique hunting for their more affluent clients. Plus, in this case, Casey wasn't sure he could argue without looking like a complete ass.

Raph let out a woosh of breath and smiled slightly

"Thanks April. You ok to go sit wit her now? Don recons she'll be out another couple'o hours, but he ain't sure how long the drugs will keep her down."

April nodded, standing up from the table and bringing the bag with her.

"Sure, where is she?"

"In Leo's room." Raph inclined his head towards the huge stairs leading to the upper level of the lair.

Casey finished his coffee quickly and rocked on his heels, clearing his throat.

"Guess that's my que to leave, nearly 9am. I'll go open the shop. Be back later tonight yea?" He leant down and pressed a kiss to Aprils lips before giving a mock salute to Raph.

"Tell all ya bro's I say hi, and if ya need to go crack some heads, ya let me know. Pretty sure I can sneak a lunch break." He grinned at Aprils disapproving look and sauntered out of kitchen, whistling as he took the elevator back to the warehouse.

It wasn't until he'd started the van that Casey took a moment's pause to put it together in his head. April had been right. This was a fresh batch of crazy staring down at them through the barrel of a high powered rifle. Now, Casey wasn't one to back away from a fight, ever, but he hadn't seen the guys so sombre in a while. It freaked him out. The last time they'd been like this was when Leo had left.

Casey shook himself out of his thoughts and huffed to himself. He supposed he'd just have to wait until Don worked his magic to figure this out a bit more, then he could get the jitters out of his blood by cracking some heads.

Back in the lair April watched her fiancé go and let out a long breath.

"Ok. I guess its time I meet Judith" She said eventually, looking over at Raph with a slight smile. Raph mimicked her look and nodded, finishing his mug of coffee and leading the way out into the lair as they headed up the stairs to Leo's bedroom. Raph paused outside the door and stared at it for a moment.

He remembered the argument he and Leo had had about this room. About who got it, who got to live in the room with the only door in the whole damn place. Originally Raphael was meant to have it, he'd drawn the long straw when they'd found their new home and he'd revelled in his glory. Revelled a little too much actually. So much that Master Splinter decided his son needed to learn a lesson in humility and grace and confiscated the room. It was given to Leonardo a short while later, and that made Raph see red.

It was still something he griped about, especially since Leo rarely closed the door anyway…

But it was defiantly closed now.

"I should warn ya, she's a little bit…broken lookin'" Raph said carefully putting a hand on the doorknob and settling his eyes to April.

April took a deep breath and nodded, keeping her smile in place.

"Don't worry Raph. I'll be fine" She assured. Raph gave a sort of off kilter shrug and pushed the door open half way, gesturing for April to go in ahead of him.

The room was dark, lit only by a flickering candle that sat on Leo's bedside table. It took a while for her eyes to adjust from the fluorescent lights of the outside lair to the practically black insides of the room but after a minute she could see well enough to make out the turtle figure sitting by the bed and the long lump of blankets that must have been Judith.

Raph slipped in behind April but left the door open enough to let a line of light in, so it was easier for April to see. He crossed the room to Leo's side, landing what would pass as an affectionate punch on his brother's shoulder as Leo stood from his chair to greet them.

"April. Hi" Even in the din April could make out the smile on Leo's face as he relinquished his post to Raph and crossed the room to stand by her, clasping a hand on her elbow and looking quite relieved. Leo's voice was hushed, barely above a whisper and April kept her voice low as she whispered back.

"Hey Leo." She returned the gesture by touching his forearm with her hand before diverting her attention to the girl on the bed. "How is she?"

Leo shrugged and released her elbow, dropping his hands to his hips. His classic 'I am displeased' pose.

"Honestly? I have no idea. I think she's going to be ok, but we're all counting on Don. He's not a doctor, he's an engineer. I mean, he's brilliant but…" Leo trailed off and rubbed his face. "None of us have had to do this before and we're all a little on edge. Its good you're here."

April patted his shoulder and tried to look reassuring.

"She's lucky you guys found her. Go get some sleep. Raph said you've been up since yesterday morning."

Leo paused to think about this, staring down at the bundle of blankets on the bed before taking a long breath and rolling his shoulders.

"Yeah. You're right." He decided finally. Leo touched her elbow again and turned, heading for the door with a slow gait she only ever saw on him when he was worried. April was sure that if Leo wore pants his hands would be stuck deep in his pockets right now. He didn't seem to know what to do with them as he pulled the door open further so he could slip out of the room. She watched him go then turned as Raph walked up beside her and went to follow his brother out.

"We'll be checkin' in every fifteen minutes or so. If somethin' happens just yell out yea? I'll bring ya up some water and some of them books you keep leavin' here when ya visit. Pretty sure there's one of those clip light things somewhere round the lair." Raph rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke and hooked his free hand into the tied band they all wore around their waists. April gave him a one armed hug.

"Thanks Raph."

Raph just grunted and headed for the door. He got all the way there before he paused and spoke again.

"If ya need anytin' else just yell." He drummed his fingers on the door frame and looked over at her. "And April…thanks…for this"

"No problem Raph. It's what we do" April just smiled and waved him away, watching as he nodded and disappeared out into the lair.

April stood in the dark room for a moment before letting out a long breath and turning on the spot to look back at the bed. In the candlelight she couldn't see a lot of the girl carefully laid out under the doona, but she steeled herself for the worst and moved forward, dropping the bag of clothes near the bedside table and taking the seat Leo had been sitting in by the bed.

From this vantage point April got her first good look and Judith. It wasn't that pleasant of a picture, but it wasn't as bad as she was expecting. Then again, she couldn't see anything below the blankets pulled up to Judith's chin.

She looked pale, even in the lack of light, and there was a purple black bruise spreading out from under a series of butterfly bandages pinning together a nasty long cut on her forehead.

April considered the girl for a moment before making up her mind and leaning forward, carefully pulling the blanket away from her to see the extent of her injuries beneath the cover of the duvet.

She had been wrong. It was as bad as she was expecting.

April replaced the covers and sat back into her chair, rubbing the bridge of her nose and letting out a very long breath to calm the sudden shot of nerves. No wonder the guys had all looked so tense. This wasn't just the usual cuts and bruises bad. This was broken bones and bleeding out bad.

"Poor thing" April muttered, leaning her elbows on her knees and resting her chin on her hands as she settled into what she suspected was going to be quite a long wait.


End file.
